GENDER & SEXUALITY STUDIES PROGRAM

Héctor Carrillo is Professor of Sociology and Gender & Sexuality Studies. He also serves as co-director of the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN), which promotes interdisciplinary research and education on sexuality and health in social context.

He is the author of two books: The Night Is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS (University of Chicago Press, 2002), and Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men (University of Chicago Press, 2017). For The Night Is Young, he received the Ruth Benedict Prize by the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists of the American Anthropological Association. For Pathways of Desire, he has received best book awards from three sections of the American Sociological Association (ASA)—Sex and Gender, International Migration, and Latina/o Sociology—and the 2020 ASA Distinguished Scholarly Book award.

Prof. Carrillo’s current research investigates the interactions of amateur genealogists with the records and documents that constitute the raw material of their genealogical projects. Among other issues, this research examines various aspects of gender and sexuality in genealogical research. Prof. Carrillo has also recently completed a study of the sexualities of straight-identified men who are sexually interested in both women and men.

Carrillo serves as a member of the editorial boards of Sexuality Research and Social Policy, and Sexualidad, Salud y Sociedad: Revista Latinoamericana, and is a Senior Editor of Theory and Society. He is a past chair of the Sociology of Sexualities Section of the American Sociological Association, and he served as co-chair of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science track of the XVII International AIDS Conference. He is an elected member of the Sociological Research Association. He also has a history of involvement in HIV/AIDS community based organizations.

Selected Publications

• Carrillo, Héctor. Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men
  University of Chicago Press, 2017.
• Carrillo Héctor and Amanda Hoffman. “Straight with a Pinch of Bi”: The Construction of Heterosexuality as an Elastic Category among Adult U.S. Men. Sexualities, 2017
• Carrillo, Héctor. The Night Is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS, University of Chicago Press, 2002.
• Carrillo, Héctor and Amanda Hoffman. “From MSM to heteroflexibilities: Non-exclusive Straight Male Identities and their Implications for HIV Prevention and Health Promotion. Global Public Health 11, nos. 7-8 (2016): 923–936.
• Carrillo, Héctor and Jorge Fontdevila. “Border Crossings and Shifting Sexualities among Mexican Gay Immigrant Men: Beyond Monolithic Conceptions.” Sexualities 17, No. 8 (2014): 919-938. Recipient of the 2016 Carlos Monsiváis Award, Sexualities Section, Latin American Studies Association (LASA).
• Carrillo, Héctor. “Dual Pathways: Mexican Gay Immigrants, their U.S-born Partners, and the Dynamics of Sexual Globalization” In Intimacies and Cultural Change: Perspectives on Contemporary Mexico, edited by Daniel Nehring, Rosario Esteinou, and Emmanuel Alvarado. (Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2014).
• Carrillo, Héctor. “Sexual Culture, Structure, and Change: A Transnational Framework for Studies of Latino/a Migration and HIV.” In HIV Prevention with Latinos:  Theory, Research, and Practice,  edited by Kurt C. Organista. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)
• Carrillo, Héctor and Jorge Fontdevila. “Rethinking Sexual Initiation: Pathways to Identity Formation among Gay and Bisexual Mexican Male Youth” Archives of Sexual Behavior 40 (2011):1241–1254

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

• “Sexuality & Society”
• “Heterosexualities: Past, Present, and Future”
• “Sexuality and Public Policy”

Graduate

• "Sociology of Sexuality"
• “Sociology of Immigration”

Books

Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men (University of Chicago Press, 2017)

The Night Is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS (University of Chicago Press, 2002)