Benjamin Waddell

Benjamin Waddell is an associate professor of sociology at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He is a father, husband, writer, professor, and advocate for social justice. He is a contributing writer for HuffPost, The Conversation, and Global Americans. He also has recent publications in Sociology of Development, Latin American Research Review, The Social Science Journal, and Rural Sociology.

Articles

April 21st 2025

ICE is eroding the rule of law

By Benjamin Waddell

“I got lucky,” José told me. “Because they got the wrong person.” José, 28, who did not give his last…

April 11th 2022

Affordable housing shouldn’t have to take a miracle

By Benjamin Waddell

Residents of the Westside Mobile Home Park in Durango, in southern Colorado, called it a miracle: They now own the…

March 21st 2022

Trailer park residents hope to buy the land beneath them

By Benjamin Waddell

Informal meeting of mothers strategizing at the park March 18 photo credit Ben Waddell

Just outside Durango, Colorado there’s a trailer park called Westside that I’ve been driving by all my life. Yet residents…

December 6th 2021

Is the American Dream fading in the West?

By Benjamin Waddell

I recently spent two days with a Mexican national named Alfredo because his experience and many of his surprising opinions…

August 2nd 2021

Willing workers are right at the border

By Benjamin Waddell

Photo by Barbara Zandoval via Unsplash

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