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 British Journal of Criminology, Sociology Compass, The Sociological Review, Critical Sociology, Critical Criminology, Law and Policy, Latin American Perspectives, Regulation & Governance, 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. My book, Crisis by Design: Emergency Powers and Colonial Legality in Puerto Rico, analyzes the role of law, emergency powers, and anticorruption social movements in the current Puerto Rican multilayered political, financial, economic, and humanitarian crisis. Crisis by Design 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
2025 Illinois Leaders Sponsorship Program. Organized by the Executive Vice President/Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University of Illinois System.
2024-2026 Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Scholar. Office of the Dean, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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
BOOKS
Atiles, Jose. 2025. Crisis by Design: Emergency Powers and Colonial Legality in Puerto Rico. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
BOOK MANUSCRIPTS IN-PREPARATION
Atiles, Jose. Colonial Projects: Tax Havens, Empire, and International Law. Cambridge University Press (In progress).
Atiles, Jose. Open for Business: Law, Shadow Banking, and International Financial Services in Puerto Rico (In progress).
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
Atiles, Jose and Rojas-Paez, Gustavo. 2025. “The Profitability of Ecocidal Impunity? Interrogating the Chemical Corporation in the Global South.” Environmental Politics. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2025.2500171
Atiles, Jose. 2025. “Economic Sanctions as State Crime: Empire, Law, and US’s Economic Warfare in Latin America.” British Journal of Criminology (Online First). https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaf003
Atiles, Jose and Whyte, David. 2025. “Fossil Capital in the Caribbean: The Toxic Role of “Regulatory Havens” in Climate Change.” Regulation & Governance, 19(2), 469-481. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.70001
Atiles, Jose. 2025. “Funding the Tax-Haven: COVID-19, the Paycheck Protection Program, and State-Corporate Crimes in Puerto Rico.” Crime, Law and Social Change, 83, 7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-024-10192-4
Atiles, Jose. 2024. “Crimes of the Powerful in Latin America and the Caribbean: Toward a Research Agenda.” Sociology Compass, 18(2), e13172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13172
Atiles, Jose. 2023. “Coloniality of Anti-corruption: Whiteness, Disasters and the US anti-corruption policies in Puerto Rico.” The Sociological Review. 71(6), 1277-1298. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261231153751 Recognized as a Highly Commended Article of 2023 as part of The Sociological Review Article of the Year Awards
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 Winner, Critical Criminology Journal Article of the Year 2023.