Dr. Spencer Potiker
Title: Instructor - Ethnic Studies
Department: Instructional Services, Arts & Sciences
Office: Cedar 106
Unit: CC
Phone: 209-588-5093
Email: potikers@yosemite.edu
Biography
Education:
PhD Global Studies - UC Irvine
MA Sociology - UC Irvine
BA Sociology and Economics - CSU Long Beach
Academic Positions:
2023-Present: Instructor of Sociology and Ethnic Studies, Columbia College
2022-2023: Lecturer of Sociology, UC San Diego
2022-2023: Visiting Fellow, Center for US-Mexican Studies, UC San Diego
Areas of Specialization:
Political Economy; Labor & Social Movements; Borders; Urbanization; Globalization & Development; Comparative & Historical Methods; Critical Logistics Studies; Community Engaged Research
Courses:
Ethnic Studies 5 - Race and Ethnicity in America
Ethnic Studies 5 - Race and Ethnicity in America
Ethnic Studies 15 - Native People of North America
Sociology 1 - Introduction to Sociology
Book Manuscript:
Fulfillment Cities: Circulating Goods and Circumventing Tariffs in the US-Mexico Borderlands
Selected Publications:
Potiker, Spencer Louis. In Press. "Bordering Along the Supply Chain: The Border as Place or Political Construction?" Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space.
Ciccantell, Paul S., Spencer Louis Potiker, David A. Smith, Elizabeth Sowers, and Luc McKenzie. 2025. "From Africa to Amazon.com: Racialized Labor and Global Supply Chains." Critical Sociology.
Potiker, Spencer Louis, David A. Smith, Paul S. Ciccantell, Elizabeth Sower, and Luc McKenzie. 2024. "Labor organizing at chokepoints along Amazon's supply chain: Locating geo-strategic nodes." Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space.
Potiker, Spencer Louis. 2023. "Exit-With-Autonomy or Autonomy-Without-Exit? Divergent Political Trajectories in Rojava and the Kurdish Regional Government." Critical Sociology.
Potiker, Spencer Louis, Dana Williams, and Jake Alimahomed-Wilson. 2022. "Anarchist and Anarchistic Anti-Systemic Movements in World-Systems Perspective: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Non-State Spaces." Journal of World-Systems Research.
Chua, Charmaine, Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, and Spencer Louis Potiker. 2021. "Amazon's Investment in Israel Reveal Comlicity in Settlements and Military Operations." The Nation.
Potiker, Spencer Louis. 2019. "Obstacles to Insurrection: Militarised Border Crossings Hindering the Rojava Liberation Struggle." Anarchist Studies.
Alimahomed-Wilson Jake and Spencer Louis Potiker. 2017. "The Logistics of Occupation: Israel's Colonial Suppression of Palestine's Goods Movement Infrastructure." Journal of Labor and Society.
Selected Honors and Awards:
Erik Olin Wright Distinguished Article Award. 2024. Critical Sociology.
Erik Olin Wright Distinguished Article Award. 2024. Critical Sociology.
Terrence K. Hopkins Student Paper Award. 2020. Political Economy of the World-System.