Anthony C. Ocampo

Anthony C. Ocampo, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cal Poly Pomona. Ocampo earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA. Prior to earning his doctorate, Ocampo also earned two interdisciplinary degrees from Stanford University—he completed his Bachelor's Degree in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE) and his Master's Degree in Modern Thought and Literature. His areas of research and teaching expertise include immigration, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and education.
Personal life
Ocampo is Filipino American. He was born in raised in Los Angeles, and he grew up most of his life in Eagle Rock, a multiethnic suburb in Northeast Los Angeles. He is the son of Antonio "Chito" Ocampo, a real estate agent, and Maria Myrtle Ocampo, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente. Both of his parents are immigrants from the Philippines. Prior to attending college, Ocampo was a student at Loyola High School of Los Angeles, an all-boys Jesuit institution. At Stanford, Ocampo was involved in a number of minority-based student organizations, including El Centro Chicano (the Latino community center on campus) and Gamma Zeta Alpha Fraternity, a Latino-interest fraternity. These involvements sparked his interest in researching Filipinos and Latino relations in the United States.
Research
Ocampo's research has focused on the experiences of children of immigrants in America, also known as the immigrant "second generation." His studies have addressed a diversity of themes related to the immigrant experience, including identity formation, race relations, education, and intergenerational family dynamics. Most of his published work draws from the experiences of second generation Filipino Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos. His research has been featured in prominent sociology and ethnic studies journals, including Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Latino Studies, and Journal of Asian American Studies. He is currently finishing two books, scheduled to be published in 2016: The Latinos of Asia: How Filipinos Break the Rules of Race (Stanford University Press) and Contemporary Asian America (co-edited with fellow sociologist Min Zhou, New York University Press).
Ocampo is an active member of several academic professional organizations, including the American Sociological Association, the Council on Contemporary Families, and the Association of Asian American Studies.
Abercrombie & Fitch Lawsuit
During his freshmen year at Stanford, Ocampo worked at the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch in Glendale, CA. The summer following his freshmen year, he was informed by a manager that he could no longer work at Abercrombie because "there were too many Filipinos working at this store." Three years later, he became a named plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit Gonzalez et al. v. Abercrombie & Fitch. The plaintiffs in the case were represented by a number of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC). The case was settled out of court, and Abercrombie was required to pay $40 million to the class.
During and after the lawsuit, Ocampo spoke about his experiences with employment discrimination in a number of media outlets, including CNN 360 with Anderson Cooper He has also spoken about the case at college campuses, including UCLA School of Law and the University of Pennsylvania.

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