Dr. Vidal-Ortiz’s academic interests range from U.S. race and ethnic studies, Puerto Rican/Latino studies, and sex/gender/sexuality scholarship, including transgender/transsexual studies and Queer Theory. His 2005 dissertation, “‘Sexuality’ and ‘Gender’ in Santería: Towards a Queer of Color Critique in the Study of Religion” received the 2006 Paul Monette-Roger Horowitz Dissertation Prize by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) of the City University of New York. He is revising this work into a book manuscript using the term “sexual minorities” and how it is utilized in the Afro-Cuban religion, thanks to further research under a Joseph A. Fichter Research Grant from the Association for the Sociology of Religion.

Trained on a number of qualitative methods, he employs these for academic and community-based research/work. His grassroots-based experience includes HIV/AIDS prevention/services/community research, Latino queer organizing, progressive philanthropy, and program and organizational development. As part of his applied sociology and social policy interests, Vidal-Ortiz has collaborated with local organizations such as Different Avenues (with funding he helped fundraise from the Sociological Initiatives Foundation) and the Washington County Free Library, and supporting the development of the new MA concentration in Public Sociology at AU. He is also involved, in an advisory capacity, on the early stage formation of the LGBT Puerto Ricans’ oral histories as part of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Archives (at  Hunter College—a member of the City University of New York system).

Dr. Vidal-Ortiz has published articles and essays in Sociology Compass, Qualitative Sociology, Latino Studies, Sexuality Research and Social Policy, The Qualitative Report, and American Sexuality Magazine, and book chapters in books titled Hybrid Identities,  Latinos/as in the United States: Changing the Face of América, Gendered Sexualities, and Gay Religion. He co-edited, with Nancy Naples, The Sexuality of Migration: Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men, based on the research of late Lionel Cantú, Jr. He also co-edited, with Karl Bryant, a special issue of the Sexualities journal on “Retheorizing Homophobias” (where he also has a peer reviewed article). Forthcoming work includes a chapter in the book Fieldwork Identities and a couple of others in an edited collection for the Latina/o Sexualities Research Agenda (the book is under contract with Rutgers University Press).

Salvador Vidal-Ortiz is currently an editorial board member for the journal Contemporary Sociology, published by the American Sociological Association (ASA), and recently completed his three-year term as an elected council member of the Race and Ethnic Minorities Section of the same organization. As an active member of ASA, he serves on the selection committee for the Dissertation Award, as well as the Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology.

In 2008, he was the sole recipient of the Multicultural Affairs/International Student Services Award for Distinguished Faculty given at American University.

At AU, Vidal-Ortiz has had the opportunity to teach courses such as Sociology of Latino Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Migration; and Introduction to Social Research. For fall 2008, he will teach Global Sociology and Social Policy Analysis.