ZULEMA VALDEZ, PhD * Associate Professor * Department of Sociology * Texas A&M University * zvaldez@libarts.tamu.edu
Zulema Valdez is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Texas A&M University, where she began as an assistant professor in 2005. She is a recent Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellow and been the recipient of grants from the Social Science Research Council and the National Science Foundation. Her interests include racial and ethnic relations, intersectionality, Latino/a sociology and economic sociology. Her work has been published in The Sociological Quarterly, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Social Science Quarterly, and is featured in several edited volumes. She is the author of the book, The New Entrepreneurs: How Race, Class and Gender Shape American Enterprise (Stanford University Press, 2011). Her research examines how social group formations (based on race, class, gender, nativity and the like) affect the social and economic life chances of American workers and entrepreneurs. In a second area of research, she is developing a new approach to assimilation rooted in intersectionality.
The New Entrepreneurs: How Race, Class, and Gender Shape American Enterprise
Stanford University Press, March 2011
For many entrepreneurs in the United States, the American Dream remains only partially fulfilled. Unequal outcomes between the middle and lower classes, men and women, and Latino/as, whites, and blacks highlight continuing structural inequalities and constraints on individual agency within American society. With a focus on a diverse group of Latino entrepreneurs, this book explores how class, gender, race, and ethnicity all shape Latino entrepreneurs’ capacity to succeed in business in the United States. Bringing intersectionality into conversation with theories of ethnic entrepreneurship, Zulema Valdez considers how various factors create, maintain, and transform the social and economic lives of Latino entrepreneurs. While certain group identities may impose unequal, if not discriminatory starting positions, membership in these same social groups can provide opportunities to mobilize resources together. Valdez reveals how Latino entrepreneurs—as members of oppressed groups on the one hand, yet "rugged individualists" striving for the American Dream on the other—work to recreate their own positions within American society.
Reviews
"In this richly textured and engaging book, Valdez presents us with a fresh and nuanced look at entrepreneurship and a new angle from which to gauge how ethnicity and race matter in shaping people's lives. The embedded market framework she has developed is cutting edge and has great potential to inform future work. Valdez succeeds in debunking myths about 'cultural explanations' in favor of a lens that incorporates structure and agency to demonstrate how differences in social positions lead to divergent life chances."
—Cecilia Menjivar, Professor of Sociology, Arizona State University
"Drawing on a series of compelling interviews conducted in Houston—a major but under-studied area of immigrant settlement—Valdez addresses the importance of race, gender and class in the creation and functioning of immigrant businesses. Focusing on working class migrants, this creative study contributes much to our understanding Latino self-employment."
—Steven J. Gold, Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University
Reviews
"In this richly textured and engaging book, Valdez presents us with a fresh and nuanced look at entrepreneurship and a new angle from which to gauge how ethnicity and race matter in shaping people's lives. The embedded market framework she has developed is cutting edge and has great potential to inform future work. Valdez succeeds in debunking myths about 'cultural explanations' in favor of a lens that incorporates structure and agency to demonstrate how differences in social positions lead to divergent life chances."
—Cecilia Menjivar, Professor of Sociology, Arizona State University
"Drawing on a series of compelling interviews conducted in Houston—a major but under-studied area of immigrant settlement—Valdez addresses the importance of race, gender and class in the creation and functioning of immigrant businesses. Focusing on working class migrants, this creative study contributes much to our understanding Latino self-employment."
—Steven J. Gold, Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University
