de la Tierra pic

Albert de la Tierra

Assistant Professor
Email: adelatierra@sfsu.edu
Location: HSS 334
Office Hours:
Tue: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Thu: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Albert de la Tierra is an Assistant Professor in Criminal Justice Studies. He holds a PhD and MPhil in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center, BA in Criminology, Law & Society from the University of California at Irvine, and advanced certificates in the Psychology of Leadership (Cornell), Critical Theory (CUNY), and Women's Studies (CUNY).

A critical ethnographer by training, Dr. de la Tierra's research aims to understand how lived experiences and cultural formations are involved with broader relations of power. A critical pedagogue in praxis, "Professor Lobo" builds on students' tacit knowledges when cultivating excellence in their work. The faculty advisor for the Annual Review of Criminal Justices Studies (an academic journal housed in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies), he mentors students who represent the next generation of leaders and knowledge producers in the field.

Albert de la Tierra has ten years of expereince teaching introductory and advanced undergraduate courses on qualitaive research design, criminal justice studies, and a range of sociological theories. He tailors coursework to students' positionalities in order to promote their ability to intterrogate the culture(s) in which they live. 

Albert de la Tierra conducts interdisciplinary research in the areas of critical criminology, sociological theory, qualitative methodologies, behavioral science, critical masculinities studies, and physical cultural studies.

  • de la Tierra, A. (2022). Settler colonial governance and the impossibility of a "good cop." In M. O. Craig & K. L. Blount-Hill (Eds.), Justice and Legitimacy in Policing: Transforming the Institutions. Routledge. 
  • de la Tierra, A. (2020). Carceral calisthenics: (Body) building a resilient self and transformative reentry movement. In K. M. Middlemass & C. J. Smiley (Eds.), Prisoner Reentry in the 21st Century: Critical Perspectives of Returning Home. Routledge. 
  • de la Tierra, A. (2019). Denouncing racist state violence: "Fuck the police!" as parrhesiastic exclamation. Critical Issues in Justice and Politics, 11(1), 28-40.
  • de la Tierra, A, & Henne, K. (2017). Southern theory. In A. Brisman, E. Carrabine, & N. South (Eds.), Routledge Companion to Criminological Theory. Routledge. 
  • de la Tierra, A. (2016). Essentializing manhood in "the streets": Perilous masculinity and popular criminological ethnographies. Feminist Criminology, 11(4), 375-397.