Looking for a meaningful “summer reading” list? Whether you’re into sociology, politics, history, or literature, ERI’s Affiliated Faculty have published books that challenge assumptions, spark dialogue, and expand our worldviews.
From critical explorations of inequality and governance to rich narratives rooted in community and resistance, these books and essays offer insights, analysis, and lived experiences across disciplines. You’re bound to find something that informs, inspires, and deepens your thinking beyond the headlines.
Check out ERI’s Affiliated Faculty members‘ works below! Support these scholars by requesting their books at your local library, sharing with a friend, or posting a review.
Amaya, Hector
- Trafficking: Narcoculture in Mexico and the United States (Duke University Press, 2020)
Carrington, Ben
De Lara, Juan
- Inland Shift: Race, Space, and Capital in Southern California (UC Press, 2018)
Dunbar-Hester, Christina
- Hacking Diversity: The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures (Princeton University Press, 2020)
Frazier, Robeson Taj
- The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination (Duke University Press, 2014)
Gualtieri, Sarah M.A.
- Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California (Stanford University Press, 2019)
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette
- South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A. (NYU Press, 2021, co-authored with ERI’s Manuel Pastor)
Molina, Natalia
Nguyen, Viet Thanh
- To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other (Harvard University Press, 2025)
- A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial (Grove/Atlantic Press, 2023)
- The Committed (Grove/Atlantic Press, 2021)
- The Sympathizer (Grove/Atlantic, 2016 – Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
Sanchez, George
- Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy (UC Press, 2022)
Yazdiha, Hajar
- The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement (Princeton University Press, 2023)