About Me

Julissa Muñiz is a Provost’s Early Career Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Educational Psychology and the Texas Center for Equity Promotion. She is also in the final months of writing her dissertation titled I don’t think any kid should be here: A Critical Ethnography on Learning in the Carceral Context, an educational ethnography that examines schooling and learning in the carceral context, specifically among incarcerated youth held in a temporary, secure residential detention center. Her research explores questions of race and racism, whiteness, mass incarceration, power and privilege, identity development, teaching and learning, institutional and organizational logics, and abolition, all at the intersection of two systems– the juvenile legal and education systems. Given the interdisciplinary nature of her work, Julissa draws on a range of theories and concepts from various fields including education, sociology, human development, critical carceral studies, ethnic studies, and cultural studies to better understand what it means to learn in captivity.  

Julissa has received funding for her doctoral studies and dissertation research from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, University of Texas Austin Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, the Social Science Research Council, The Graduate School, the Northwestern Buffett Institute, and the Northwestern Program of African Studies. Currently, she’s developing an interrelated strand of research focused on learning and development among migrant children and adolescents caged in immigration detention centers.  

Julissa is a proud first-generation borderlands scholar from San Ysidro, California. In 2021 with the support of her community and former classmates, she founded the San Ysidro Rising Scholar Award, a college scholarship and mentorship program that supports first generation graduating seniors from her alma mater–San Ysidro High School. Prior to graduate school, Julissa served as a middle school academic counselor for TRIO Talent Search in Oakland, California, and GED co-instructor for the Adult Peer Education Project at San Quentin State Prison.