Article in SUU Journal
Article in Spectrum
Tuesday, January 20 - 11:30 AM - SUU Auditorium
Gangs and Life on the Streets
Dr. James Vigil
Professor of Social Ecology
James Diego Vigil is a professor of social ecology in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1976 from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Vigil’s work is expressly interdisciplinary, cutting across the fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, criminal justice and education.
His expertise is in urban poverty dynamics, psychological anthropology, socio-cultural change, ethnic relations, and socialization and educational anthropology. His work has focused regionally on the Western U.S. and greater Mesoamerica. Vigil is one of the foremost authorities on urban youth and youth gang culture, and he has explored how education and a variety of social programs together form a balanced anti-gang strategy combining prevention (e.g., Head Start and other educational programs), intervention and suppression.
Prior to his position at UCI, he taught at UCLA for six years and at University of Southern California for fourteen years. Additionally, in 2000-2001 he was a Visiting Professor in Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. His books include: From Indians to Chicanos: The Dynamics of Mexican American Culture (1980), Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California (1988), Personas Mexicanas: Chicano High Schoolers in a Changing Los Angeles (1997), and A Rainbow of Gangs: A Cross-Cultural Study of Street Youth in Los Angeles (2002). His latest book, The Projects: Gang and Non-Gang Families in East Los Angeles, has recently been released, and it is an example of his applied anthropological contributions to urban poverty research. He has also published over 65 articles and book chapters.
Dr. Vigil regularly acts as a consultant and expert witness in cultural defense in gang-related homicides. He was Director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty at UCLA; Chairman of the National Center for Gang Policy; and Director of Ethnic Studies at the University of Southern California. Over his distinguished career, Dr. Vigil has been honored with a variety of awards, the most recent of which is the American Anthropological Association’s Robert Textor and Family Prize for Excellence in Anticipatory Anthropology (2007) in recognition of his work on urban youth and youth gangs.