Getting to Know AK: Jose Palafox
[Editor’s Note: AK Press was thrilled to welcome Jose Palafox into the AK collective this June. We post this brief, autobiographical statement from him in order to share some of the reasons for our excitement and to help readers of this blog learn more about those who enable AK to function from day to day. We plan to publish biographies of other collective members in the near future.]
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I was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and grew up in San Diego, California. While in San Diego, I was involved in many DIY-political punk bands (Struggle, Swing Kids, and later on, Bread and Circuits). In 1995, I moved to the Bay Area and attended UC Berkeley for undergraduate and then graduate school (Comparative Ethnic Studies and Sociology). Currently, I’m working on a new music project, Baader Brains.
My political work, writing, and documentary film has focused on issues of migration, specifically relating to the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and the social movements along the California and Arizona border region. In 2001, I was the associate producer of the 28-minute documentary New World Border. I have published articles in Social Justice, Covert Action Quarterly, ColorLines, Z Magazine, Borderlines, Shades of Power, Left Turn, and Maximum RocknRoll.
For the past eight years, I have taught in Chicano/Latino Studies and Sociology at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Mills College, UC Santa Cruz, and University of San Francisco. I’ve taught courses on the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands; Social Movement Theory; Gender, Globalization, and World-Systems Analysis; Theories and Methods in Comparative Ethnic Studies; Introduction to Chicana/o Studies.
After teaching full-time for eight years, I decided to take a break from it for a bit. I currently work in publishing at AK Press in Oakland, California.