Michel Estefan

Michel Estefan received a BA in international relations and a MA in human rights from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City). He received a MA in Latin American studies and a MA and PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a political sociologist that studies the rule of law from a comparative and historical perspective and a committed teacher with a practice and research focus on inclusive and equitable pedagogy. His first book, Feeling Like Equals: A Gramscian Reading of the Historical Origins and Development of Human Rights was published in Spanish by Universidad Iberoamericana Press (2015). His current work in political sociology uses the empirical cases of twentieth century Spain and Mexico to unearth the authoritarian foundations of the rule of law.

 His work on pedagogy has appeared in Inside Higher Ed and his current projects are focused on developing innovative teaching methods that center the experiences of minoritized students in higher education. He has trained more than 1,725 teaching assistants, faculty, and postdocs in the UC and CSU systems on how to build inclusive and equitable classrooms, encourage student participation, and design student-centered integrated courses. His results in the classroom have been recognized with awards from the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology, the Berkeley Undergraduate Sociology Student Association, the Berkeley Graduate Division, and the section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology of the American Sociological Association.