RESEARCH

PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES 

Salinas Thomas, E., & Muñiz, J.O. (Under Review). "We do the Work:" Latina Mujeres, Resistance, and State Surveillance in a Border County. 

Muñiz, J.O.  (Conditionally Accepted). "Nah Miss Tell My Story: A Black Feminist Approach to Research In the Carceral Context.  Special Journal Issue. 

Muñiz, J.O. (Revise & Resubmit). "You Don't Get Treated as a Student:" Incarcerated Students' Perceptions of Schooling and Learning Across Context.

Muñiz, J.O. , Camper, M., Corcoran, F.,  Gruber, S., & Eddy, J.M.  (Revise & Resubmit-Under Review). A Systematic State Analysis of Family Visitation Policies for Youth Detained in the  Juvenile Legal System During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Muñiz, J.O., Corcoran, F., Marzougui, J., Schlafer, R., Eddy, J.M., & Dallaire, D. (2023). Towards Family Preservation: A Systematic Jurisdiction Analysis of Prison Visitation Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 1-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000379

Muñiz, J.O, & Marshall, J. (2022). We are not of this place: On Race, Identity, and Criminality Among Incarcerated White Youth. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12793

Muñiz, J.O. (2021). Exclusionary Discipline Policies, School Police Partnership, Surveillance Technologies and Disproportionality: A Review of the School to Prison Pipeline Literature. The Urban Review, 1-26. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11256-021-00595-1

WORKS IN PROGRESS

Muñiz, J.O. "Safety and Security First:"The Interplay of Organizational Logics and Juvenile Practitioners in a Youth Correctional Facility. 

Muñiz, J.O. & Lizarraga, A. From the Classroom to Confinement: The Criminalization and Schooling of Mexican Heritage Students. 

RESEARCH PROJECTS

University of Texas at Austin

Latinx Familias, Safety, and the Criminal Legal System in Central Texas

In the state of Texas, nearly 40% of residents identify as Hispanic and/or Latinx. Given these demographics, studying the experiences of Latinxs in Central Texas provides a peephole into understanding the challenges and opportunities Latinx communities face amidst the sociopolitical unrest in Texas and to some extent the broader United States. As a sociopolitical landscape, Texas has had some of the most contested battles over immigration, policing, mass incarceration, and border enforcement which directly and indirectly impact Latinx communities in the state. Texas is home to over 31 immigration detention centers, 252 jails, 61 state prisons, 5 state schools (i.e., youth prisons), and 45 pre-adjudication juvenile correctional facilities creating a web of interlocking criminal legal systems that maintain and reproduce the carceral state. To make matters worse, in the last three years, there were two targeted mass shootings, one in El Paso and the other in Uvalde, that left forty-five people dead, the majority of whom were Latinx, and several more wounded. Now more than ever, we ask what it means to be Latinx in a state that simultaneously hyper-criminalizes and underprotects Latinx and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities. As such, this pilot study will qualitatively investigate how direct and indirect experiences with criminal legal systems, law enforcement agents, and targeted acts of violence inform individual and collective identity development among Latinx families. Secondly, we will examine how those experiences shape the civic and political engagement of Latinxs as citizens and noncitizens of the state.

Northwestern University

Dissertation Title: I don't think any kid should be here: A Critical Ethnography on Learning in the Carceral Context

Dissertation Committee: Drs. Jim Spillane, Shirin Vossoughi, David Stovall, and Sepehr Vakil

Using a critical ethnographic approach, my dissertation examines a Midwest County juvenile detention center as a site of learning. Bringing together cultural historical activity theory and institutional theory frameworks (CHAT-IT), this study foregrounds learning in context, more notably how learning is conceptualized, organized, and experienced by the various social actors within the juvenile detention center (Ogawa, Crain, Loomis, & Ball, 2008). In addition to investigating the varied forms of learning accessible to incarcerated youth, this study examines how different institutional actors, particularly the adults in the carceral setting, (i.e., administrators, teachers, security staff, and community educators) organize and conceptualize education under confinement. In what ways are these narratives different, or similar to, how young people narrate their learning and schooling experiences? By studying education in the carceral context—a liminal space between schools and prisons—and the experiences of those caught in both worlds, researchers, educators, and policymakers can develop a better understanding of 1) what it means to learn and go to school while incarcerated as a young person, 2) how juvenile practitioners conceptualize, design, and organize education for those inside, and 3) how youth make sense of those learning experiences in ways that have implications for their educational trajectories. Otherwise, our conceptualization and approach to the school prison nexus will remain incomplete, further harming countless youth and communities over time.