Sebastián Ortega, MA — Graduate Research Assistant

Sebastián Ortega is a first-year doctoral student in the sociology department at the the University of Chicago. Sebastián received his M.A. in Sociology from Columbia University in 2020. He holds a B.A in Chicano/a Studies from California State University, Long Beach. Spending most of his teen years in the juvenile system and engaged in street violence, Sebastián has spent the last nine years using educational, political, cultural empowerment to support gang members in California. His research focuses on the perpetuation of settler colonialism in the (in)justice system and how it targets resistance groups (street/prison gangs).

Prior to coming to the Justice Project, Sebastian worked at the Columbia Justice Lab as an Officer of Research on the Rikers Island Longitudinal Study (RILS) led by Dr. Bruce Western. From 2016 to 2019 he also worked with youth in the juvenile system as a case manager. While working as a case manager he had the opportunity to train various youth-serving agencies throughout Southern California on how to work with “gang involved” youth and share his knowledge on settler colonialism as it relates to Chicano/Indigenous street and prison gangs and the movement to abolish the current carceral apparatus.