Research Bio

Jose Eos Trinidad is Assistant Professor at the University of California Berkeley. He is a sociologist focused on the study of organizations outside schools and the study of schools as organizations. He received his Joint PhD in Sociology and Comparative Human Development from the University of Chicago.

He is author of Subtle Webs: How Local Organizations Shape US Education (Oxford, 2025) and of more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in journals like Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis; Educational Researcher; Socius; Sociology of Education; Race Ethnicity & Education; and Social Science & Medicine.

His research primarily investigates the interaction between schools and "outside" research, philanthropic, and nonprofit organizations — with consequences for our understanding of public policy implementation, school improvement, and civil society. His current research looks at these cross-sector partnerships (1) in large urban school districts like Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New York City, (2) with quantitative datasets assembled from US nonprofit tax records, and (3) in new civic organizations in developing countries. To understand policies and politics holistically, he is a multi-method researcher using quantitative causal inference strategies, qualitative interviews, and network analysis. 

He teaches courses on causal inference (advanced quantitative methods), organizational theory, and education inequality/ policy.

View his curriculum vitae. 

Research Expertise and Interest

education policy, institutional change, organizational theory, civil society, sociology of education