Yalidy Matos

Yalidy Matos is an associate professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. Her research interests include immigration politics in the United States, Latina/o racial identity, Dominican American political incorporation, and women of color political representation. She is the author of Moral and Immoral Whiteness in Immigration Politics (OUP 2023) and Politics in Our Veins: the Rise of Dominican American Political Power in the United States (NYU 2026). Matos has been the recipient of the 2022 American Political Science Association Distinguished Junior Scholar in Political Psychology Award and a 2024-2025 Russel Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar. Her scholarship can be found on her website www.yalidymatos.com.

Publications:

• Politics in Our Veins: The Rise of Dominican American Political Power in the United States. NYU Press, 2026.
• Lenear, India S. and Yalidy Matos. “In Solidarity: Predicting African American and Black Immigrant Women’s Solidarity with Immigrants.” Politics & Gender. OnlineFirst (Mar 21). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X25000157
• Matos, Yalidy and Kira Sanbonmatsu. “Men of Color, Linked Fate, and Support for Women of Color Candidates.” The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 9(3), 600-619. OnlineFirst (May 23, 2024). https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2024.10 
• Moral and Immoral Whiteness in Immigration Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.
• “Rhode Island Latinas running for Congress illustrate state's shift.” Axios (July 11). https://www.axios.com/2023/07/11/rhode-island-congress-sabina-matos
• Matos, Yalidy, Stacey Greene, and Kira Sanbonmatsu. “The Politics of “Women of Color”: A Group Identity Worth Investigating.” Politics, Groups, and Identities. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2021.2008992 

Media Appearances/Speaking Engagements:

• Dr. Matos is interviewed by Telemundo 47 on Vice President and Democratic Nominee for President Kamala Harris’ election challenges (https://youtu.be/3SmkYeSJdn4?si=k9cGprIOA07dUBFc) 
• Latinx Voters and the 2024 Presidential Election (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5GBbe4sK6A&t=1480s) 
• Dr. Matos Comments on Biden’s State of the Union on NPR (https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1155335757/1155335758)
• "The Boundaries and Attributes of Latinidad" Research Presentation at Northwestern (Feb 2024)
• “At the Intersection of Afro-Latinidad and Gender”, Research Presentation at Rice University (Feb 2023) and UCLA (May 2022)
• “Biden speech acknowledges immigration and pathway to citizenship issues.” National Public Radio (NPR; Feb 8). https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1155335757 

Accomplishments:

• Russell Sage Foundation 2024-2025 Visiting Scholar
• 2023 Chancellor-Provost’s Celebration of Faculty Excellence, Rutgers University, Honoree
• 2022 American Political Science Association (APSA) Distinguished Junior Scholar in Political Psychology
• 2022 Russell Sage Foundation Pipeline Grant ($30,000)

Upcoming Projects:

• Book project: "Living Afro-Latina Lives: An Afrodiasporic Feminist Approach to Understanding Identity Formation and Political Consciousness"

My scholarship treats race, power, and inequality as foundational forces in U.S. political life, rather than as secondary “identity” variables. Across my research agenda, I examine how racial hierarchies shape public opinion, policy outcomes, and political participation—especially in the arenas of immigration politics, Latine racial identity, and gendered forms of representation. In doing so, I seek to make visible the ways that political institutions and everyday attitudes can reproduce exclusion, and how marginalized communities organize to contest it. My scholarship connects social and racial justice to the core operations of American politics: it explains how racial hierarchies are maintained through policy and public opinion, and it illuminates how marginalized groups organize, claim belonging, and expand representation in ways that can reshape power.

"Just Takes" is an Op-Ed/thought piece/writing initiative at the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice.

See Dr. Yalidy Matos's "Just Take" Politics in Our Veins: Dominican Political Power is Rooted in a History of Struggle and Resistance here: https://globalracialjustice.rutgers.edu/Just-Takes