Cluster Hires

Cluster Hire for Tenure-Track Faculty

Cal Poly strongly values diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), in the classroom, in scholarship, and in service experience. We have shown a commitment to cluster hiring focused on DEI with several cohorts starting in 2017. In the 2024-2025 hiring cycle, Cal Poly is conducting a university-wide cluster hire – positions are listed below - all positions are designed to increase curricular coverage of areas related to DEI, as well as to promote inclusive and equity-minded teaching strategies across the university. Successful candidates will be expected to contribute to the university’s goals in these areas. Candidates selected through this DEI cluster hire will be given start-up funds to support their work in DEI and a dedicated mentor will be given upon appointment. Once hired, candidates will collaborate with their dean and others to develop a plan for utilizing these funds for supplemental compensation, assigned time, or professional development activities.  More information about our past cluster hire cohorts is below. Please reach out to Dr. Jennifer Teramoto Pedrotti (Assoc Vice President for DEI Academic Initiatives) and/or Dr. Simone Aloisio (Assoc Vice President for Academic Personnel) with any questions.

Hiring Positions

Meet our 2024 Cohort of Cluster Hires for the College of Liberal Arts

Curricular Theme: Migration and Immigration in Latinx/e Populations

Sergio Fernando Juárez (he/him/his)

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Communication Studies Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Communication Studies, University of Denver

Research Interest: Critical pedagogies in university settings; Intercultural communication; Pathways to higher education; Immigration media and politics

G. Aron Ramirez (he/him/él)

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History Department

Degree: Ph.D. in History, Yale University

Research Interest: Latine history, the twentieth-century US, urban history, the history of the political economy, and housing policy.

Melissa Manzanares (she/her)

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Interdisciplinary Studies in the Liberal Arts Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Research Interest: International migration across the Americas; Labor experiences, labor violations, and human trafficking among Latin American migrants; Unpaid family labor, work-family conflict, gender

Jared P. Van Ramshorst (he/him/his or él/él/su)

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Political Science Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Geography, Syracuse University

Research Interest: Immigration, Border and Immigration Enforcement, Race and Ethnicity, Urban Studies

Ivan Hernandez (he/him/his)

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Psychology and Child Development Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech

Research Interest: Social Justice in Engineering Design, Equitable Curriculum and Course Design, and Learning & Development in Professional Engineering Practice.

Daniel Rodriguez Ramirez (he/they/él)

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Psychology and Child Development Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Social Psychology, UC Santa Cruz

Research Interest: Psychology of Social Change, focus on transformative change in abolitionist organizing and care work; Immigrant psychological well-being and the psychology of immigration; Participatory action research and community-engaged research

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