Jorge Fontdevila, Ph.D.

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Jorge Fontdevila is Professor of Sociology at California State University, Fullerton. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology with Distinction from Columbia University. His doctoral research explored HIV risk-taking behaviors in social contexts of masculinity self-presentations and drug-using networks among heroin-involved heterosexual men in Harlem. He has worked extensively with the Social Intervention Group at Columbia University conducting socio-behavioral research among several New York populations disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, including injection drug users in street settings and methadone clinics. From 2003 to 2006 he was affiliated with the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies as research ethnographer of the Trayectos Study. In this study he conducted ethnographic research on social contexts of HIV risk among Mexican gay and bisexual immigrant men in the San Diego border regions. His recent qualitative research explores stigma-related barriers and meanings attached to HIV biomedical interventions among Latino men who have sex with men in Orange County, CA. Dr. Fontdevila also publishes social theoretical scholarship on the relationship between language semiotics and social networks to understand risky decision-making mechanisms.

Dr. Fontdevila’s teaching goals are to actively stimulate critical thinking and analytical skills among his students so that they can apply their sociological imagination, including sociological concepts and theories, to their daily lives. He teaches Social Interaction, Sociology of Sexualities, and graduate seminars Sociology of Medicine/Health, Sexuality and Society, Sociology of HIV/AIDS, Sociology of Emotions, Research Methods, and Advanced Theories of Social Behavior.

PUBLICATIONS

Fontdevila, J.  2023. “Stigma-embedded Semiotics: Indexical Dilemmas of HIV across Local and Migrant Networks.” In A. Cossu and J. Fontdevila (Eds.),  Interpretive Sociology and the Semiotic Imagination. Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press.

Cossu, A. and  Fontdevila, J.  (Eds). 2023.  Interpretive Sociology and the Semiotic Imagination. Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press.  https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/interpretive-sociology-and-the-semiotic-imagination

Fontdevila, J.  2020. “Epidemics as Complex Systems: Sexual Meanings and HIV among Latino Gay and Bisexual Men.” In A. Patterson and I. Read (Eds.),  The SHAPES of Epidemics and Global Disease. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Fontdevila, J.  2019. “Productive Pleasures across Binary Regimes: Phenomenologies of Bisexual Desires among Latino Men.”  Sexualities, published ahead of print, April 5, 2019,  https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460719839915

Fontdevila, J.  2018. “Switchings among Netdoms: The Relational Sociology of Harrison C. White.” In F. Depelteau (Ed.),  The Palgrave Handbook of Relational Sociology. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

Carrillo, H. and  Fontdevila, J.  2014. “Border Crossings and Shifting Sexualities among Mexican Gay Immigrant Men: Beyond Monolithic Conceptions.”  Sexualities  17:919-938.

Fontdevila, J.  and White, H. C. 2013. “Relational Power from Switching across Netdoms through  Reflexive and Indexical Language.” In C. Powell and F. Depelteau (Eds.),  Applying Relational Sociology: Relations, Networks, and Society. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

Fontdevila, J., Opazo, M.P., and White, H.C. 2011. “Order at the Edge of Chaos: Meanings from Netdom Switchings across Functional Systems.”  Sociological Theory  29:178-198.

Carrillo, H. and  Fontdevila, J.  2011. “Rethinking Sexual Initiation: Pathways to Identity Formation among Gay and Bisexual Mexican Male Youth.”  Archives of Sexual Behavior  40:1241-1254.

Fontdevila, J.  2010. “Indexes, Power, and Netdoms: A Multidimensional Model of Language in Social  Action.”  Poetics  38:587-609.

Fontdevila, J.  and White, H. C. 2010. “Power from Switching across Netdoms through Reflexive and Indexical Language.”  REDES  18:326-349.

Fontdevila, J. 2009. “Framing Dilemmas during Sex: A Micro-Sociological Approach to HIV Risk.”  Social Theory & Health  7:241-263.

Carrillo, H.,  Fontdevila, J., Brown, J., and Gomez, W. 2008.  Risk Across Borders: Sexual Contexts and HIV   Prevention Challenges among Mexican Gay and Bisexual Immigrant Men. Trayectos Study Monograph (UCSF/SFSU,www.caps.ucsf.edu/projects/Trayectos).

El-Bassel, N., Gilbert, L., Wu E., Chang, M., and  Fontdevila, J.  2007. “Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence among Men in Methadone Treatment Programs in New York City.”  American Journal of  Public Health  97:1230-1232.

Fontdevila, J.  2006. “Phenomenologies of the  Akratic  Self: Masculinity, Regrets, and HIV Risk among  Men on Methadone.”  Journal of Urban Health  83:586-601.

Fontdevila, J., El-Bassel, N., and Gilbert, L. 2005. “Accounting for HIV Risk among Men on Methadone.”  Sex Roles  52:609-624.

Schilling, RF.,  Fontdevila, J., Fernando, D., El-Bassel, N., and Monterroso, E. 2004. “Proximity to Needle  Exchange Programs and HIV-related Risk Behavior among Injection Drug Users in Harlem.” Evaluation and Program Planning  27:25-33.

El-Bassel, N., Gilbert, L., Golder, S., Wu EW., Chang, MW.,  Fontdevila, J., and Sanders, G. 2004. “Deconstructing the Relationship between Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual HIV Risk among  Drug-involved Men and their Female Partners.”  AIDS and Behavior  8:429-439.

Fernando, D., Schilling, RF.,  Fontdevila, J., and El-Bassel, N. 2003. “Predictors of Sharing Drugs among  Injection Drug Users in the South Bronx, NYC: Implications for HIV Transmission.”  Journal of  Psychoactive Drugs  35:227-236.

El-Bassel, N.,  Fontdevila, J., Gilbert, L., Voisin, D., Richman, BL., and Pitchell, P. 2001. “HIV Risks of Men in Methadone Maintenance Treatment Programs who Abuse their Intimate Partners: A Forgotten Issue.”  Journal of Substance Abuse  13:29-43.

Schilling, RF., Fernando, D.,  Fontdevila, J., and El-Bassel, N. 2000. “HIV Risk Reduction among Injection Drug Users: Explaining the Lack of Anticipated Outcomes in a Community-level Controlled Comparison Study.”  Evaluation and Program Planning  23:301-313.

Gilbert, L., El-Bassel, N., Rajah, V., Foleno, A.,  Fontdevila, J., Frye, V., and Richman, BL. 2000. “The Converging Epidemics of Mood-Altering-Drug-Use, HIV, HCV, and Partner Violence: A Conundrum for Methadone Maintenance Treatment.”The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine  67:452-464.