Research
In my academic work, I focus on two research areas:
1. Organizational diversity work
This area includes projects on how diversity workers craft their jobs and the unfolding of organizational diversity initiatives. In this area, I have observed and examined the organizational lives of diversity workers in a U.S. public university, students from low-income backgrounds who entered an elite university in Latin America through a diversity initiative, and U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officers who hold a diversity fellowship.
Publications
- Portocarrero, Sandra and James T. Carter. 2022. “But the Fellows Are Simply Diversity Hires! How Organizational Contexts Influence Status Beliefs.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 8(7): 172–191.
Nominated for Best Paper on Environmental and Social Practices, Organizations and Management Theory Division at the Academy of Management, 2022.
- Portocarrero, Sandra and James T. Carter. 2022. “Diversity Initiatives in the US Workplace: A Brief History, Their Intended and Unintended Consequences.” Sociology Compass, 16(7): e13001.
- Portocarrero, Sandra and Lisa E. Cohen. 2026. “Follow the Tasks: Examining Diversity Workers’ Job Content Can Help Us Understand Diversity Initiatives.” A Call to Action Part 2: Transforming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through Norms, Leadership Practices, and Mindset.
Papers Under Review
- Núñez, Sandra. 2023. “Racialized Expertise: The Consequences of Perceiving the Race of Workers as a Type of Expertise.”
Runner-up, Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Paper Award, Organizations and Management Theory Division at the Academy of Management, 2023.
Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings (top 10% of annual conference submissions), 2023.
- Núñez, Sandra and Gerardo Okhuysen. “How Signals from Organizational Diversity Initiatives Shape the Experiences of their Target Population.”
Works in Progress
- Berkebile-Weinberg, Ashley, Sandra Núñez, Ajua Duker, and Rebecca M. Carey. “How Diversity Initiatives Fail Minoritized People: Lessons from Intergroup Theory.”
2. Immigrant Entrepreneurship: Undocumented U.S. Entrepreneurs and Asylum Seekers
Within this body of work, I examine the social and economic lives of undocumented entrepreneurs in California. Emerging from findings in this research, I have also launched a research project examining how Latino asylum seekers who arrive in New York City and are periodically displaced from one shelter to another launch their businesses. I will be conducting fieldwork in New York City to expand this project in spring and summer 2027.
Hit me up to talk about inequality if you are in the city!
Undocumented entrepreneurship
In this area, I have examined undocumented entrepreneurs in California.
Works in Progress
- Núñez, Sandra, Dan Wang, and Inara Tareque. “The Quest for Dignity: Insights into Undocumented Entrepreneurship in California.”
- Wang, Dan, Iliana Perez, Sandra Núñez, and Inara Tareque. “How Immigration Status Shapes Entrepreneurial Strategy.”
Watch this video to learn a bit about my immigrant story, and to hear my voice narrating it.
How Will You Use Your Voice? Animation created by Majid Adin, Xiren Wang, and Jennifer Allsopp for the Penn-Birmingham Transatlantic Migration Fellowship Program, 2021.
Invited talk at the HEC Paris Inclusive Economy Day, April 2023
Sheltered entrepreneurship
Within this area of work, I am analyzing how New York City migrant shelters can serve as innovative hubs of entrepreneurial strategy.
Works in Progress
- Núñez, Sandra and Daniela Perleche. “Sheltered Entrepreneurship.”
- Núñez, Sandra, Andrew Foley, and Daniela Perleche. “Migrant Shelters as Hubs of Innovative Strategy.”