Michael Miyawaki

Prior to joining The College of Wooster in 2020, Professor Miyawaki was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hendrix College (2015-2020). He taught courses in race and ethnicity, mixed race studies, immigration, social inequality, research methods, and social statistics.

Professor Miyawaki’s research interest is in race and ethnicity, particularly in the areas of
identity formation, group boundaries, classification systems, and inequality, and as they pertain to Latinos and the multiracial population in the United States. His current research examines the racial and ethnic identities of “part-Latinos,” or the offspring of Latino/non-Latino unions, based on interviews with 100 people of partial Latino ancestry in New York and San Francisco, and statistical analysis of data from the American Community Survey.

At Wooster, he also founded the M&M Project (https://wooster.edu/mmproject), a campus photography project aimed at raising awareness about microaggressions and promoting the adoption of microaffirmations. Since its release, photos from the website have been featured as part of classroom instructions, faculty and staff development, campus events, and more. The M&M Project was funded by the Hamburger Endowment for Collaborative Projects and Program Development.

• Introduction to Sociology
• Inequality in America
• Racial and Ethnic Groups in American Society
• Sociology of Immigration
• Critical Mixed Race Studies
• Race, Media, & Society (First Year Seminar)

• Miyawaki, Michael H. 2024. “Who Are Part-Latinos? A Demographic Portrait of People of Partial Latino Ancestry.” Latino Studies, 22(1): 120-152.
• Miyawaki, Michael H., and Clara E. Rodriguez. 2023. “Census Classification and the
  Political Construction of Race.” Pp. C17S1-C17N13 in The Oxford Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Politics in the United States, edited by David L. Leal, Taeku Lee, and Mark Sawyer. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Miyawaki, Michael H. 2018 “Qualitative Inquiry of Multiracial Identities and Experiences.” Qualitative Sociology, 41(4):617-621.
• Miyawaki, Michael H. 2016. “Part-Latinos and Racial Reporting in the Census: An Issue of Question Format?” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2(3):289-305.
• Miyawaki, Michael H. 2015. “Expanding Boundaries of Whiteness? A Look at the Marital Patterns of Part-White Multiracial Groups.” Sociological Forum, 30(4):995-1016.

• American Sociological Association
• Critical Mixed Race Studies Association