Professor Joseph Palacios (Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley) teaches Sociology at Georgetown University. His courses include: Introduction to Sociology, Social Theory, Social Justice Analysis, Religion and Society, Latino Sociology, Culture and Power in Latin America, and Sociology of Culture. He is also part of the graduate faculty of the School of Foreign Service's Latin American Studies Program specializing in political culture and religion in Latin America. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Justice and Peace Studies and on the Steering Committee of the Executive Council of the Georgetown Colege Faculty.

Professor Palacios is a sociologist of political culture whose research interests include: Latin American and Latino Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Political Culture, Civil Society, and Social Theory. In the spring of 2007 the University of Chicago Press published his book "The Catholic Social Imagination: Activism and the Just Society in Mexico and the United States." He also was invited to write on "Morality Battles" in Contemporary Sociology and contributed an article entitled “Reconfiguring American Civil Religion: The Triumph of Values.” Professor Palacios has done continuous research on the Catholic Church in Mexico and the United States since 1996. In 2006 he has expanded his research on Mexico and the social doctrine of religion to include Chile and Argentina, as part of a book project entitled "Latin American Civil Religions: From Democracy, Dictatorship, and Transition Towards Pluralistic Democratic Cultures." He has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for Chile and will teach a doctoral seminar on "Religion and Society in the United States" and do research at Universidad de Santiago's Institute for American Studies from March-July 2009.

Professor Palacios is the Director of the Georgetown Community-Based Learning Summer Program at Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile, and teaches "Religión y Sociedad en America Latina". This program provides students an integrated and intensive learning program of community service, Spanish language instruction, sociology and culture courses, and field trips designed to give students a comprehensive experience of Chilean society and the social issues of a modern democratic society.

Professor Palacios is faculty advisor to the Latino student organization MEChA. He is also a consultant to a variety of human and civil rights organizations and a member of the Board of Directors of The Center (DC Metro GLBT Community Center) and the DC Steering Committee of the Human Rights Campaign.