Francisco Lara- Garcia '12

Doctoral Candidate, Department of Sociology, Columbia University

  • "The Center for Latin American Studies jumpstarted my career as an academic. The Center gave me the foundations in scholarship and academics that I have needed to pursue rigorous research in Latin America and Mexicans living in the United States. I wouldn't be where I am without them."

Francisco Lara-García is a doctoral candidate and Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University in the City of New York. Prior to coming to Columbia, he received a Masters of Urban Planning at Harvard University and a Bachelors in Sociology, Latin American Studies and Political Science from the University of Arizona.

His dissertation seeks to better integrate migration studies with urban sociology by investigating the role of contextual factors in producing differential integration paths for immigrants in cities in the U.S and Europe. He draws on a variety of qualitative and quantitative strategies for this analysis, including survey, interview and ethnographic methods.

"The Center for Latin American Studies jumpstarted my career as an academic. The Center gave me the foundations in scholarship and academics that I have needed to pursue rigorous research in Latin America and Mexicans living in the United States.I wouldn't be where I am without them."