2022 Incoming Grad Series: Humberto Flores

THE STORY

I am a Chicano first-generation student who was born and raised in Riverside County in Inland Southern California. In the Inland Empire, educational attainment falls below the state and national average due to the lack of educational opportunities provided to students like myself. However, despite the barriers, I persisted and completed my BA in sociology at UCLA and studied policing as a member of the Million Dollar Hoods project. I also hold an MA in sociology from UC Riverside. I will be entering the Sociology PhD program at UC Santa Barbara this fall to study police illegitimacy in Latinx communities.

Coming of age in the Inland Empire, California, I experienced and witnessed the harsh policing practices endured by Black and Latinx residents, which oftentimes lead to high levels of distrust in law enforcement. The Inland Empire is predominantly Latinx and working class. I worked in a warehouse by night and went to school by day. The Inland Empire also has a history of civil gang injunctions that criminalize non-gang-involved Latinxs like myself. While my lived experiences with police unfortunately shaped much of my life, they also now fuel my intellectual curiosity and desire to pursue a Ph.D. in Sociology to study police illegitimacy.

WHY UCSB

Since I was an undergraduate student, I have always wanted to attend UCSB. Ultimately, I chose UCSB Sociology because of the department's trailblazing faculty and cutting-edge scholarship on the criminal legal system. Additionally, the department made me feel very welcome during recruitment. I also received the Racial Justice Fellowship, which will allow me to return to Riverside during the summers to conduct research in the field. Being from the Inland region of California, I am excited about living on the coast again.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

As an undergraduate student at UCLA, I participated in Educators For Tomorrow. My project, Hip-Hop in Academia, explored how educators use hip-hop to create a culturally relevant pedagogy for students of color, drawing on the Community Cultural Wealth framework. I also conducted research for the Million Dollar Hoods (MDH) team, a project that maps the costs of mass incarceration. Using local arrest and jail records, the research documents show how millions of dollars are used every year on inequitable law enforcement practices in disadvantaged communities. I was also funded by UCLA to conduct research abroad in the Netherlands on racial profiling. At UC Riverside, my MA thesis "Got it Bad Cause I'm Brown " used an intersectional lens to explore legal cynicism in Riverside and San Bernardino, California. I am further interrogating Latinx legal cynicism in my dissertation work at UC Santa Barbara.

FUN FACTS

A fun fact about me is that when I was a young kid, I got in a fight with a monkey in Mexico. Of course, I lost that one. Recently, I became interested in street photography to document the realities of the Inland Empire. During my free time, I also enjoy working out and hiking.