Dr. Steven Osuna, Associate Professor

Email: steven.osuna@csulb.edu
Office: PSY-137
Phone: (562) 985-4604

Pronouns: he/him/his

Main Courses:

• Critical Criminology (Soc. 342)
• Modern Sociological Theory (Soc. 357)
• Sociology of Migration and Immigration (Soc. 358)
• The Transnational Latino Experience in the Caribbean: Imperialism, Reform, and Revolution (CHLS 430 – Cuba Study Abroad Course) 

Research Interests:

• Racism and political economy, globalization and immigration; policing and criminalization; social theory

Education:

• B.A. Chicana/o Studies, CSU Los Angeles, 2005
• M.A., Chicana/o Studies, CSU Los Angeles, 2008
• M.A./PhD, Sociology: Black Studies Doctoral Emphasis, UC Santa Barbara, 2015

Publications:

• Abrego, Leisy and Steven Osuna. “The State of Exception: Gangs as a Neoliberal Scapegoat in El Salvador.” The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Vol. 29, Issue 1 (Fall/Winter 2022).
• Osuna, Steven. “The Social Murder of Victoria Salazar: Neoliberal Capitalism and Working Class Precariousness in El Salvador.” Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis, Vol. 1, Issue 3 (2022): Article 4.
• Osuna, S (2021) “Securing Manifest Destiny: Mexico’s War on Drugs, Crisis of Legitimacy, and Global Capitalism,” Journal of World Systems Research, 21(1).
• Osuna, S (2020) “Transnational Moral Panic: Neoliberalism and the Spectre of MS-13,” Race & Class, 61(4).
• Osuna, S (2019) “The Psycho Realm Blues: The Violence of Policing, Disordering Practices, and Rap Criticism in Los Angeles,” Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, 4(1).
• Osuna, S (2017) “Class Suicide: The Black Radical Tradition, Radical Scholarship, and the Neoliberal Turn.” In Gaye T. Johnson and Alex Lubin. The Futures of Black Radicalism.
• Osuna, S (2017) “Obstinate Transnational Memories: How Oral Histories Shape Salvadoran-Mexican Subjectivities.” In Alicia Estrada et. al. U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memories, Struggles, and Communities of Resistance.
• Osuna, S (2016) “They’re Not Solving the Problem, They’re Displacing It: An Interview with Alex Sanchez.” In Jordan D. Camp and Christina Heatherton. Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter.
• Osuna, S (2015) “Intra-Latina/o Encounters: Salvadoran and Mexican Struggles and Salvadoran-Mexican Subjectivities in Los Angeles,” Special Issue of Ethnicities: Latino Formation in the U.S.: Laboring Classes, Migration & Identities 15(2).

Media

• Millennials are Killing Capitalism, “We Need To Be Active In The Working Class Struggle For Socialism Globally’ – Steven Osuna on Class Suicide,” May 12, 2022
• The World, “El Salvador’s Bukele Arrests 13,000 in Crusade Against Gangs,” April 20, 2022: 
• The Checkout, “Episode 114: Dr. Steven Osuna on Racial Capitalism and Class Suicide,” April 3, 2022: 
• Trés Mall, “Violent Entrepreneurs,” June 21, 2021.
• Daniel Hernandez, “A Salvadoran Writer Busts the Trump Myth of the Tattooed Immigrant Threat,” LA Times, September 29, 2020

Reviews

• Osuna, Steven, “Police and Thieves: On Policing, Counterinsurgency, and Racial Capitalism.” American Quarterly, 74, no. 1 (2022).
• Osuna, Steven. “The Machete of Memory: Roberto Lovato’s Memoir Unforgetting.” Boom California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2020).