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:

• Ph.D., Sociology, Black Studies Doctoral Emphasis, UC Santa Barbara, 2015
• M.A., Sociology, UC Santa Barbara, 2011
• M.A., Chicana/o Studies, CSU Los Angeles, 2008
• B.A., Chicana/o Studies, Option: Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, CSU, Los Angeles, 2005

Publications

• Journal Articles

Abrego, Leisy J., and Steven Osuna. 2023. “The State of Exception: Gangs as a Neoliberal Scapegoat in El Salvador.” The Brown Journal of World Affairs,  29 (1)

Honorable Mention, Outstanding Marxist Sociology Award, 2022-23, ASA Section on Marxist Sociology 

Osuna, Steven. 2022. “The Social Murder of Victoria Salazar: Neoliberal Capitalism and Working Class Precariousness in El Salvador.” Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis, 1, no. 3.

Osuna, Steven. 2021. “Securing Manifest Destiny: Mexico’s War on Drugs, Crisis of Legitimacy, and Global Capitalism.” Journal of World Systems Research, 21, no. 1.

Osuna, Steven. 2020. “Transnational Moral Panic: Neoliberalism and the Spectre of MS-13.” Race & Class 61 (4).

Osuna, Steven. 2019. “The Psycho Realm Blues: The Violence of Policing, Disordering Practices, and Hip Hop in Los Angeles.” Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, 4 (1).

Osuna, Steven. 2015. “Intra-Latina/Latino Encounters: Salvadoran and Mexican Struggles and Salvadoran–Mexican Subjectivities in Los Angeles.” Ethnicities 15 (2).

• Book Chapters

Osuna, Steven. 2025. “El Mundo es un Barrio, Homie: The Psycho Realm’s Visions of Fortress L.A.” in Underground Music Cultures and Music-Making in Los Angeles, edited by Sébastien Darchen, John Willsteed, and Damien Charrieras (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

 Osuna, Steven. 2017. “Obstinate Transnational Memories’: How Oral Histories Shape Salvadoran-Mexican Subjectivities,” in U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memory, Struggles, and Communities, ed. Karina O. Alvarado, Alicia I. Estrada, and Ester E. Hernandez (Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press).

Osuna, Steven. 2017. “Class Suicide: The Black Radical Tradition, Radical Scholarship, and the Neoliberal Turn,” in The Futures of Black Radicalism, ed. Gaye Theresa Johnson and Alex Lubin (New York, NY: Verso Press).

Osuna, Steven. 2016. “They’re Not Solving the Problem, They’re Displacing It: An Interview with Alex Sanchez,” in Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to the Black Lives Matter Movement, ed. Jordan Camp and Christina Heatherton (New York, NY: Vero Press).

• Book Reviews

 Osuna, Steven. 2023. “Strike Against the Octopus: A Review of Suyapa Portillo’s Roots of Resistance,” NACLA Report on the Americas, 55(3).

Osuna, Steven. 2022. “Police and Thieves: On Policing, Counterinsurgency, and Racial Capitalism.” American Quarterly, 74(1).

Osuna, Steven. 2020.  “The Machete of Memory: Roberto Lovato’s Memoir Unforgetting.” Boom California, Berkeley: University of California Press.

• Other 

Osuna, Steven. 2021.  “Clyde Woods: The People’s Prof!” Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, Vol. 8, No 1-2 (2021)

• Media

Press Play with Madeleine Brand. “Why El Salvador accepted U.S. inmates in its mega-prison.” March 17, 2025.

Millennials are Killing Capitalism. Mao’s “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People” with Steven Osuna. December 14, 2023.

Millennials are Killing Capitalism. “Back to Organization” – David Chávez, Steven Osuna, Alejandro Villalpando & Jared Ware Offer Reflections from the Abolitions Conference. July 6, 2023.

Summer Lin. “Cal State Long Beach faculty back professor who accused campus police of racial profiling.” Los Angeles Times, August 4, 2022.

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. 

CSF Collective, “Interrogating Policing Transnationally with Dr. Steven Osuna.” January 4, 2021.

Daniel Hernandez, “A Salvadoran Writer Busts the Trump Myth of the Tattooed Immigrant Threat.” LA Times, September 29, 2020.