Privilege at Play: An Ethnography about Whiteness, Wealth, and Masculinity in Contemporary Mexico

March 5, 2020

4 p.m. | Hellems 252

Talk by Hugo Cerón-Anaya (Assistant Professor, Lehigh University)

Based on ethnographic research conducted in three exclusive golf clubs as well as in-depth interviews with club members and lower-status employees, the present talk analyzes social inequality from an often-overlooked perspective by focusing on the privileged rather than the underprivileged in Mexico. This viewpoint permits to illustrate the multilayered condition of power, showing how class, race, and gender relations perpetuate dynamics of domination. The talk will end with a reflection of what I have learned by studying the upper-middle and upper classes in Mexico, as well as the implications this knowledge may have for the United States.

Bio: Hugo Cerón-Anaya is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University. His work focuses on social hierarchies, inequalities, and privilege, examining how class, race, and gender inform the behavior and perceptions of affluent people. He is particularly interested in the wide array of ordinary and everyday practices that reproduce privilege. He is the author of Privilege at Play: Class, Race, Gender and Golf in Mexico, OUP, 2019.

This event is co-sponsored by The Latin American Studies Center and the Departments of Geography, Sociology and Women & Gender Studies.