Dr. Raúl Pérez Ph.D.

Raúl Pérez is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of La Verne. His research and teaching interests focus on the sociology of race and ethnicity, social inequality, social theory, and culture. His scholarship examines the intersections of racism, humor, and social conflict in the U.S. and globally, and his work has been awarded and supported by the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the University of California Center for New Racial Studies, and the Working-Class Studies Association.

His first book, The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy (Stanford University Press, 2022), received the 2023 Mary Douglas Book Prize from the American Sociological Association’s Section on the Sociology of Culture, and was a Finalist for the 2022 C. Wright Mills Book Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Other works are published in journals such as American Behavioral Scientist, Discourse and Society, Comedy Studies, Ethnicities, Sociological Perspectives, Social Semiotics, Sociology Compass, and various other scholarly volumes and edited collections.

Research

His research and commentary also appear across various local, national, and international media, including TIME, The Washington Post, NBC, Harper’s BAZAAR, The Los Angeles Times, Axios, Telemundo, Remezcla, The Giro, Daily KOS,and Zócalo Public Square, and he was featured in the 2024 documentary film, XCLD: The Story of Cancel Culture, for theMSNBC documentary series, “The Turning Point,” executive produced by comedian Trevor Noah. He is a founding member and Vice-President of the Critical Humor Studies Association, and currently serves as an External Advisor for the Democratic Literacy and Humor (DELIAH) project funded by the European Union, and is a member of the Scientific Committee for the International Society for Humor Studies.