Headshot of Dominique Adams-Santos
Research faculty

Dom Adams-Santos

Managing Director, Center for Racial Justice; Senior DEI Strategist, Ford School; Adjunct Lecturer

Dominique Adams-Santos is the managing director of the Center for Racial Justice and senior DEI Strategist at the Ford School. Dr. Adams-Santos is a qualitative researcher who centers questions of sexuality, intimacy, and belonging in the digital era. Specifically, she seeks to understand how individuals navigate the racial, gender, and sexual politics of digital and urban landscapes in their search for intimacy and community. She has published articles on digital sexuality and intimacy in Sexualities and Sociology Compass. As a queer woman of color scholar, Dr. Adams-Santos is especially invested in mapping the contours of urban and digital placemaking among racialized and gendered sexual minorities, the subject of her dissertation project. She earned her PhD in sociology with a certificate in gender and sexuality studies from Northwestern University.

Learn more on Adams-Santos' personal site.

Teaching

Dr. Adams-Santos will be co-teaching Racial Foundations of Public Policy in fall 2021. Racial Foundations of Public Policy is a virtual speaker series that focuses on the historical roots and impact of race in shaping public policy as both a disciplinary field and as a course of action. The series will bring in renowned scholar-experts from across the country to be in conversation with the director of the Center for Racial Justice at the Ford School of Public Policy, Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes. The series is open to all members of the University of Michigan community and the wider public. A companion course will be offered in partnership with the Center for Racial Justice and will be led by the center’s director and associate director, Dr. Watkins-Hayes and Dr. Adams-Santos.

Educational background

  • PhD in sociology, Northwestern University
  •  BA in sociology, cum laude, Smith College