Dr. Jacqueline Jiménez Polanco is a Full Professor of Sociology in the Social Sciences Department at Bronx Community College, CUNY. She started teaching at BCC in the summer of 2007 as an Associate Adjunct and was hired as a full-time Assistant Professor faculty in fall 2008. Since then, she has been the faculty advisor of the Dominican Cultural Club.

Professor Polanco’s teaching philosophy includes a pluralistic pedagogical approach that stimulates students’ concerns for social issues and helps them develop their abilities to use their sociological imagination to understand the rapid social changes and challenges in today’s post-modern cyber society (in contrast with pre-industrial and industrial societies), in which the use of advanced technology coexists with a wide range of inequities and inequalities. She trains her students to develop their capacity to do critical thinking by combining theoretical, informational, and experiential knowledge.

Dr. Polanco’s research focuses on politics in the Dominican Republic, Dominican American politics, women’s political representation in Latin America and the Caribbean, gender and sexuality, LGBTIQA+ communities, and asylum claims in the U.S.

Professor Polanco was born and raised in the Dominican Republic. She is an immigrant New Yorker who enjoys poetry, painting, walking in Central Park, and planting medicinal and cooking herbs in her Manhattan neighborhood’s community garden. As a typical Dominican migrant, she frequently travels back home to connect with the soil, culture, family, and friends, and to convey presentations in academic conferences.

Education

Ph.D. cum laude in Political Science and Sociology, Complutense University of Madrid
J.D. in Law, Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra and Complutense University of Madrid
M.A. in Comparative Law, Complutense University of Madrid
M.A. in Political Science and Constitutional Law, Center for Political and Constitutional Studies, Madrid

Courses Taught at BCC

Soc 11: Introduction to Sociology
Soc 31: Race and Ethnic Relations
Soc 34: Social Deviance
Soc 37: Social Inequality

Recent Publications

Jiménez Polanco, Jacqueline. 2024. Dominican American Politics: Immigrants, Activists, and Politicians. New York: Routledge.
https://www.routledge.com/Dominican-American-Politics-Immigrants-Activists-and-Politicians/JimenezPolanco/p/book/9781032814759?srsltid=AfmBOorndzUS6SVCDXvtinyFxA1rkSg_N8HAu_MKjbVhWB2yEeS8ZKIF

Jiménez Polanco, Jacqueline. 2024. “Transgressing Social, Gender, and Sexual Norms in Colonial Santo Domingo (1716-1719).” In Transatlantic Bondage: Slavery and Freedom in Spain, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico. New York: SUNY Press. https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/Transatlantic-Bondage2

Jiménez Polanco, Jacqueline, and Ernesto Sagás, eds. 2023. Dominican Politics in the Twenty First Century: Continuity and Change. New York: Routledge.
https://www.routledge.com/Dominican-Politics-in-the-Twenty-First-Century-Continuity-and-Change/JimenezPolanco-Sagas/p/book/9781032377551?srsltid=AfmBOoooR8wP6uQeCdVHK6ZQHQWtS31DLugxz9ejgIlrmB7xMmkORDDJ

Jiménez Polanco, Jacqueline. 2023. “The Odebrecht Fraud: An Analysis of Corruptive Practices in the PLD’s Cartel Politics.” In Jiménez Polanco, Jacqueline, and Ernesto Sagás, eds. 2023. Dominican Politics in the Twenty First Century: Continuity and Change. New York: Routledge.
https://www.routledge.com/Dominican-Politics-in-the-Twenty-First-Century-Continuity-and-Change/JimenezPolanco-Sagas/p/book/9781032377551?srsltid=AfmBOoooR8wP6uQeCdVHK6ZQHQWtS31DLugxz9ejgIlrmB7xMmkORDDJ

Jiménez Polanco, Jacqueline (Ed.) 2025. Divagaciones II: Una antología de mujeres dominicanas lesbianas, bisexuales y queer/An Anthology by Dominican Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Women. New York: Divagaciones. https://a.co/d/0eCm6wNK

Jiménez Polanco, Jacqueline. 2026. Sappho en Santo Domingo. https://a.co/d/0fD3z2Mi

Jiménez Polanco, Jacqueline. 2025. Honoring Sappho. https://a.co/d/0fD3z2Mi

Recent Awards

BCC President’s Award for Excellence in Research (2024).

The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Fellowship, 2023 ($10,000) and the PSC CUNY Award for research on “Dominican American Political Empowerment”, 2024 ($6,000).