Carlos Alberto Torres

UCLA professor of education Carlos Alberto Torres studies the relationship between culture and power, the interconnections between economic, political, and cultural spheres, and the numerous and contradictory dynamics of social movements that make education an environment of ongoing conflict and struggle. His research focuses on the impact of globalization in K-12 and higher education, and he is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on Latin American Studies.

Torres is the principal biographer of Brazilian philosopher and critical social theorist Paulo Freire, and jointly with Paulo Freire in 1991 founded the Paulo Freire Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2002 professor Torres and his students founded the Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA, which promotes programs and scholarship related to social justice education.

A critical social theorist, Torres is the author of more than 60 books including Social Theory and Education (co-written with Raymond Morrow) (SUNY Press, 1996), widely considered the standard theoretical text on the sociology of education. Most recent books by Torres include Education and Neoliberal Globalization (Routledge, 2009) and Globalizations and Education: Collected Essays on Class, Race, Gender, and the State (London Teachers College Press-Columbia University, 2009).

Torres is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Most recently he was named the 2012-13 Fellow of the Sudikoff Family Institute for Education & New Media, an initiative for faculty public engagement at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. In 2008 he was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Universidad Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in 2011 he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada for his exceptional contributions to Canadian intellectual life.