Professor, Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work
PhD, Northeastern University
MA, Northeastern University
BA, University of Delaware
SOCI 210 Families
SOCI 305 Latinas in U.S. Society
SOCI 307 Representations of Mental Health
SOCI 321 Race and Ethnic Relations
SOCI 410 Sociology of Education
SOCI 425 Sociology of Childhood
SOCI 470H Honors: The Posthuman Child
SOCI 475H Honors: Children's Geographies
WGSS 201 Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
As an undergraduate student, I was drawn to a number of different, but interrelated, disciplines and graduated with majors in Women's Studies, Psychology, and Sociology. My graduate education reflected a continuing interest in interdisciplinary research and scholarship: I earned Graduate Certificates in Cinema Studies and Women's and Gender Studies on the way to receiving my MA and PhD in Sociology.
At MCLA, I teach courses related to my research on children, youth, and childhood, as well as connected to my background in women's and gender studies. In addition, I offer several classes about racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S.
I am invested in providing quality mentorship to students during their undergraduate educations. I encourage students to further define and hone their interests and specialties with the declaration of minors and/or double majors. Following, I frequently mentor students in the process of applying to graduate school.
I am committed to serving the discipline of Sociology in a variety of official roles. I am Co-Chair of the Committee for Gender Equity for the Eastern Sociological Society. Notably, I was a recent Chair of the American Sociological Association's Section on Children and Youth and was an elected member of the Eastern Sociological Society's Executive Committee. I am currently working on starting a new section for the American Sociological Association: Creative Sociology.
My theoretical and qualitative work focuses on children and young adults; race, gender,
and education; and applying a sociological lens to cinema studies/cultural studies.
As a Childhood Studies scholar, I am particularly invested in exploring children's agency. I pay special attention to the influences of space, place, and family generationality using film, fiction, and research methodologies as my points of reference. The strategies children use and routes children take when employing agency in order to make their voices heard and desires known are all integral to my research on childhood.
Castro, I.E., & Giunta, J.V. (2024). Don’t Stray Too Far: [Robot] Parents and [Posthuman] Children. In D. Olson (Ed.), Screening Children in Post-Apocalypse Film and Television (135-166). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I.E., with Barbosa, K.M., Broyles, B.M., Eastland, W., & Tayi, L. (2023). Teaching Education, Talking Childhood, Troubling Gender: A Roundtable Discussion on Gender Play. In C.J. Pascoe & F.B. Oeur (Eds.), Gender Replay: On Kids, Schools, and Feminism (155-182). New York, NY: New York University Press.
Castro, I.E. (Ed.) (2021). Childhood, Agency, and Fantasy: Walking in Other Worlds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I.E. (2021). Where Do We Belong? Childhood Studies, Agency, Citizenry, and Fantasy. In I.E. Castro (Ed.), Childhood, Agency, and Fantasy: Walking in Other Worlds (3-38). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I.E. (2021). The Boy Who Lives: Agentic Locations of Friendship Identity, Peer Cultures, and Interpretive Reproduction in Harry Potter. In I.E. Castro (Ed.), Childhood, Agency, and Fantasy: Walking in Other Worlds (117-149). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I.E. & Campos-Manzo, A.L. (2021). Being Scared in the Dark: Paradoxes, Perils, and the Promise of Fantasy for Urban Girls of Color. In I.E. Castro (Ed.), Childhood, Agency, and Fantasy: Walking in Other Worlds (227-262). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro,I.E.(2020). Monstrosity, Ethic of Care, and Moral Agency in Stephen King's Firestarter. In D. Olson (Ed.), Children and Childhood in the Works of Stephen King (97-119). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I. E., & Clark, J. (Eds.). (2019). Child and Youth Agency in Science Fiction: Travel, Technology, Time. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Clark, J., & Castro, I. E. (2019). Girl Zombies and Boy Wonders: The Future of Agency is Now! In I. E. Castro & J. Clark (Eds.), Child and Youth Agency in Science Fiction: Travel, Technology, Time (1-21). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I. E. (2019). The Emergence of Agency after Bionuclear War: Posthuman Child – Animal Possibilities. In I. E. Castro & J. Clark (Eds.), Child and Youth Agency in Science Fiction: Travel, Technology, Time (251-72). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I. E., & Clark, J. (Eds.) (2019). Representing Agency in Popular Culture: Children and Youth on Page, Screen, and In Between. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Clark, J., & Castro, I. E. (2019). Zuzu’s Petals and Scout’s Mockingbirds: The Legacy of Children’s Agency in Popular Culture. In I. E. Castro & J. Clark (Eds.), Representing Agency in Popular Culture: Children and Youth on Page, Screen, and In Between (pp. xi-xxxi). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I. E. (2019). The Spirit and the Witch: Hayao Miyazaki’s Agentic Girls and their (Intra)Independent Genderational Childhoods. In I. E. Castro & J. Clark (Eds.), Representing Agency in Popular Culture: Children and Youth on Page, Screen, and In Between (pp. 255-282). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I. E. (2019). Suspicious, Petty, Jealous: Stereotyping Young Women’s Friendships in College. In K. Kline & R. Laist (Eds.), Cinema U: Representations of Higher Education in Popular Film (pp. 75-91). Fourth Horseman Press.
Castro, I. E. (2018). Intergalactic Gastronomy: Orientalist Representations of Asian Food, Chefs, and Restaurants within Science Fiction Films. In B. M. Arnold, T. E. Tunç, & R. D. Chong (Eds.), Chop Suey and Sushi from Sea to Shining Sea: Chinese and Japanese Cuisine Restaurants in the United States (pp. 253-273). Fayetteville, AK: University of Arkansas Press.
Castro, I. E., Swauger, M., & Harger, B. (Eds.) (2017). Researching children and youth: Methodological issues, strategies, and innovations. Sociological studies of children and youth, Volume 22. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
Swauger, M., Castro, I. E., & Harger, B. (2017). The continued importance of research with children and youth: The “new” sociology of childhood 40 years later. In I. E. Castro, M. Swauger, & B. Harger (Eds.), Researching children and youth: Methodological issues, strategies, and innovations. Sociological studies of children and youth, Volume 22. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing. 1-7.
Castro, I. E. (2017). Contextualizing agency in high-structure environments: Children's participation in parent interviews. In I. E. Castro, M. Swauger, & B. Harger (Eds.), Researching children and youth: Methodological issues, strategies, and innovations. Sociological studies of children and youth, Volume 22. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing. 149-173.
Castro, I.E. (2016). Children, Innocence, and Agency in the Films of Steven Spielberg. In A. Schober & D. Olson (Eds.), Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg (121-40). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Castro, I.E. & Sujak, M.C. (2014). ‘Why can’t we learn about this?’: Sexual Minority Students Navigate the Official and Hidden Curricular Spaces of High School. Education and Urban Society, 46(4), 450-73.
---Reprint (2018). In J.H. Ballantine, J.Z. Spade, & J.M. Stuber (Eds.), Schools and Society: A Sociological Approach to Education, 6th edition (162-72). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
