Silvia Dominguez

Silvia Dominguez is a versatile scholar with diverse research interests, and Integrative, creative, and collaborative approaches characterize her work. She focuses on inequalities worldwide, particularly those related to cities and municipalities, poverty, immigration, race, violence, social networks, and space. She has regional expertise in Liberia, Chile, and Barcelona. Her research has been published in prestigious journals such as Social Problems, American Behavioral Scientist, and Vulnerable Children and Youth, as well as numerous edited volumes. Silvia’s book, Getting Ahead: Social Mobility, Immigrants and Social Networks (New York University Press, 2011), explores how immigrant women living in public housing get ahead through diverse social networks and self-propelling agencies. She co-edited the book Mixing Methods in Social Networks (Cambridge University Press, 2014) with Bettina Holstein, which showcases studies that combine methods to study various issues. Silvia is working on a book manuscript on microaggressions with David Embrick to be published by New York University Press and ethnographic research on museums and space. She is also conducting an ethnographic study of immigrant women in Recoleta, a find of neo-municipality in Santiago, Chile.

At the request of Massachusetts General Hospital, Silvia developed a policy against gender-based violence in Liberia after doing field research there.  She is also an independent forensic evaluator for Massachusetts, and her work aims to prevent deportations and keep families together. Moreover, the United States Census Bureau has recognized her expertise in ethnography, specifically in studying low-income populations.