Julissa O. Muñiz, PhD is an assistant professor in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Broadly, her research explores issues of race and racism, power and privilege, identity development, education, and abolition at the intersections of the US public education, juvenile legal, and criminal legal systems. More specifically, Dr. Muñiz examines the conditions that both enable and constrain teaching, learning, and identity development among incarcerated youth who are living and learning in juvenile court schools. Her training and research have been generously supported by the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, Spencer Foundation and the National Academy of Education, and the Social Science Research Council. Dr. Muñiz earned both her PhD and MA in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University; her EdM in prevention science and practice from the Harvard Graduate School of Education; and her BA in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to her appointment at UCLA, Dr. Muñiz was an assistant professor in psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Provost Postdoctoral Fellow in educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also a first-generation borderlands scholar from San Ysidro, California and has spent numerous years volunteering, teaching, and researching correctional facilities across the US.
