Erick Ramirez Manriquez

Erick Ramirez Manriquez is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at UC San Diego and a first-generation Latinx scholar. A former community college transfer student, Erick draws deeply on his lived experiences to inform both his research and teaching, grounding his work in critical self-reflection and a commitment to equity.

His dissertation bridges macro-level theories of racialization with micro-level processes of identity construction to examine how racialization shapes students’ academic decision-making. Using a mixed-methods approach (quantitative-qualitative), he applies Bonilla-Silva’s tri-racial stratification thesis (White, Honorary White, Collective Black) to investigate how proximity to—or distance from—ethno-racial whiteness influences high-achieving community college students’ perceptions of academic worth, selectivity, and aspirations. His research sheds light on the racialized barriers that influence students’ decisions to apply—or not apply—to selective universities, aiming to advance more inclusive and equity-centered postsecondary pathways for historically marginalized students. 

Erick’s scholarship has been supported by UC San Diego’s Division of Social Sciences, the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education, and the UC Office of the President’s UC-HSI Doctoral Diversity Initiative. Erick’s commitment to advancing racial equity has been recognized through several honors, including an Honorable Mention for the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship (2022), the UC Santa Cruz HSI Transformative Service Award (2019), the UC San Diego Equal Opportunity–Affirmative Action & Diversity Award (2017), and a nomination for the UC President’s Award for Outstanding Student Leadership (2017).