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Carlos Jr. Munoz
Educator, Author & Activist
Carlos Jr. Munoz
Educator, Author & Activist
Biography
Dr. Carlos Muñoz, Jr. was born in the “segundo barrio” in El Paso, Texas, and raised in the barrios of East Los Angeles, California. Although he is the son of poor working class Mexican immigrants, he overcame the odds and earned his AA from Los Angeles City Community College, his BA with honors in Political Science from California State University at Los Angeles and his PhD in Government from the Claremont Graduate School. He is now Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley. After 42 years of teaching in higher education, he has gained international prominence as political scientist, historian, journalist and public intellectual on the issues of ethnic and racial politics, multiculturalism and diversity, immigration, civil and human rights and affirmative action.
Dr. Muñoz was the founding chair of the first Chicano Studies department in the nation in 1968 at the California State University at Los Angeles and the founding chair of the National Association of Chicana & Chicano Studies (NACCS). He is the author of numerous pioneering works on the Mexican American political experience and on African American and Latino political coalitions. His book, Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement, won the Gustavus Myers Book Award for “outstanding scholarship in the study of human rights in the United States.” The book was a major resource for the PBS television series Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. He is currently working on two new books: Decolonizing America: Toward Authentic Multiracial Democracy and his autobiography, Victory is in the Struggle.
As a scholar-activist, Dr. Muñoz has been a central figure in the struggles for peace in the United States and abroad. He has appeared on PBS, NBC, CNN, ABC, CBS and the Spanish-speaking UNIVISION and Tele Mundo, in addition to being a syndicated columnist with the Progressive Media Project. In 2005, Dr. Muñoz was honored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education for "Educating others and inspiring them in the Pursuit of their Goals.” In 2007, the National Black Student Conference honored him with their Pioneer Visionary Award and in 2012, he was named Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Scholar at UC Berkeley.
Dr. Muñoz has lectured at most of the prestigious universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Michigan, Texas and numerous less known state and community colleges throughout the nation. He has also been a keynote speaker for non-academic institutions including nonprofit community agencies, public schools and professional associations and groups. He has a well-known reputation as a dynamic and inspirational speaker.
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