Oscar Gutierrez

Oscar Gutierrez is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He was born and raised in Southeast Los Angeles where he currently lives and conducts research with queer communities of color and analyzes their relationship to landscapes of environmental justice. His dissertation project entitled, “A/effective Pollutants: Landscapes of Environmental Justice in Southeast Los Angeles” looks at queer Latinx relationships to industrial sites to understand how notions of race, class, gender, and sexuality have reshaped the social and political movement. For over a decade, he has worked alongside his community to address environmental impacts through his involvement with organizations like Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ). Oscar is currently the co-coordinator of the Los Angeles History and Metropolitan Studies Group sponsored by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West where he organizes seminars on scholarly works-in-progress, book lectures, and panel discussions on contemporary issues facing southern California and American cities.