Alan A. Aja

Alan A. Aja is an Assistant Professor and Deputy Chair in the Department of Puerto Rican & Latin@ Studies at Brooklyn College (City University of New York). He holds a Ph.D. in Public & Urban Policy from the New School, a Master of Arts in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Sociology from the University of Kentucky. Prior to academia, Aja worked as a labor organizer in Texas and conducted human rights and environmental education research in Latin America. His research and publications focus on racial disparities, ethnic enclaves, intra-group colorism, immigrant incorporation, inter-group relations, Latino political power and race-based affirmative action. He has provided live and/or taped commentary for various media outlets, including CNN en Espaol, AOLs Black Voices, MSNBCs the Grio, TV3 (Cataluyna, Spain), CUNY Television, Brooklyn News 12 and (the former) Air America. Ajas parents were born in Cuba. He considers Miami, Florida and Louisville, Kentucky as his co-hometowns. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his family, all Brooklyn Nets fans.