Contact Information
3080 Lincoln Hall
Urbana, IL 61801
M/C 454
Biography
Jose Atiles is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Jose holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Law from the University of Coimbra (Portugal), a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of the Basque Country (Spain), and a MA in Sociology of Law from the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Oñati). His research and publications focus primarily on the sociolegal and criminological implications of US colonialism in Puerto Rico and how emergency powers, corruption, and state-corporate crime exacerbates the unequal and undemocratic condition of Puerto Rico. He has published in peer-reviewed journals such as The Sociological Review, British Journal of Criminology, Critical Criminology, Law and Policy, Latin American Perspectives, State Crime Journal, among others.
Research Interests
Sociology of Law
Crime, Law and Deviance
Law and Society
Critical Criminology
Political Sociology
Law and Political Economy
Colonialism
Puerto Rico, Latin America and the Caribbean
Latina/o Sociology
Research Description
My research is focused on the sociolegal and criminological study of Puerto Rico and its legal and political relationship with the US. I am particularly interested in studying how the Puerto Rican case provides a better understanding of the connections between colonialism, law, emergency powers, crises, and corruption, and its social, criminological, economic and political consequences. I am also interested in the study of processes of criminalization of social, political and environmental movements, and contemporary manifestations of corporate crimes and state crimes. Currently, I am working on my book, Crisis by Design: Emergency Powers, Corruption, and Resistance in Puerto Rico. In my book, I analyze the role of law, emergency powers, and anticorruption social movements in the current Puerto Rican multilayered political, financial, economic, and humanitarian crisis. My book asks how Puerto Ricans access a just recovery amid simultaneous crises and the continuous use and renewal of state of emergency declarations in response to these crises. In this project, I employ qualitative methodologies, such as ethnography, case studies, historical research, critical discourse analysis and policy analysis.
Education
Ph.D. University of Coimbra
Ph.D. University of the Basque Country
M.A. International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati. University of the Basque Country.
B.A. University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
Grants
Humanities Teaching Release Time. Campus Research Board. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (AY 2022-2023).
Funding Initiative for Multiracial Democracy (Scholarship Award). Campus Research Board. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. January 2022 to June 2023.
Inaugural Summer Faculty Research Fellowship. Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. May 2020 to August 2021.
Awards and Honors
2022 Illinois Student Government Teaching Excellence Award. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Courses Taught
Soc 275 Criminology
Soc 310 Sociology of Deviance
Soc 378 Sociology of Law
Soc 479 Law and Society
Soc 596/Law 792 Law and Society (Graduate)
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, College of Law (by Courtesy)
Assistant Professor, Global Studies Programs
Assistant Professor, Department of Latina/Latino Studies
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Sciences
Assistant Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Global Studies
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Latin America and Caribbean Studies
Faculty Affiliate, Women and Gender in Global Perspective
Recent Publications
Atiles, Jose. 2023. “Coloniality of Anti-corruption: Whiteness, Disasters and the US anti-corruption policies in Puerto Rico”. The Sociological Review. (Online first) https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261231153751
Atiles, Jose. “COVID-19 and The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program in Puerto Rico : Anti-Corruption, Fraud Prevention, and Punishment”. Critical Sociology (Online first) https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920523119522
Atiles, Jose. 2023. “Anti-corruption legislation in Puerto Rico: A sociolegal study of the registry of persons convicted of corruption”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series (Online first). https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.1676
Atiles, Jose. 2023. “On Colonial Exceptionality, Neoliberal Coloniality, and Legal Interruptions”. Dialogues in Human Geography. 13(1), 149-152. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206221102936
Atiles, Jose and Whyte, David. 2023. “Reproducing Crises: Understanding the Role of Law in the COVID-19 Global Pandemic”. Law and Policy Journal 45(3), 238-252. https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12214
Atiles, Jose. 2023. “Emergency Powers, Anti-corruption, and Policy Failure During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Puerto Rico.” Law and Policy Journal. 45(3), 253-272. https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12201
Atiles, Jose, and Rojas-Paez, Gustavo. 2022. “Coal Criminals: Crime of the Powerful, Extractivism and Historical Harms in the Global South”. The British Journal of Criminology, 62(5), 1289-1304. doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac050
Atiles, Jose. 2022. “Punitive Governance and the Criminalization of Socioenvironmental, Anti-Austerity and Anticorruption Mobilizations in Puerto Rico”. Critical Criminology, 30, 961-981. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-022-09660-x