Bio

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. My father and mother immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. My father is from Perú, and mother is from England. I earned my B.A. at the University of California, San Diego with a major in Political Science and my Ph.D from Cornell in the Government Department. I live in Seattle with my husband, Geoff Wallace, and our two teens in high school.  In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family, listening to music, cooking, hiking, birding, paddle boarding, traveling, and exploring the outdoors and beauty of the PNW. 

Formal Bio:  

​Sophia Jordán Wallace is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Stuart A. and Lee D. Scheingold Endowed Faculty Fellow in Social Justice at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her research interests include the politics of race and ethnicity, Latino politics, immigration politics and policy, public opinion, and legislative politics.

She is the co-author of Walls, Cages, and Family Separation: Race and Immigration Policy in the Trump Era (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Her work has been published in various journals including the American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, International Migration Review, Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Politics, Groups, and Identities, Political Science Quarterly, American Politics Research, PS: Political Science & Politics, and Social Science Quarterly. She is currently working on two books. One is entitled, United We Stand: Latino Representation in Congress. The other is called, Immigration Reform: Failure and Success in Congress. She was the Director of the Washington Institute for the Study of Inequality and Race (WISIR) from 2019-2022 and one of the editors of Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) from 2018-2022. She is currently serving as WISIR director for the 2023-2024 AY. Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Dirksen Center, and the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.