B.A., Sociology, UC Los Angeles
B.A., Chicanx & Central American studies, UC Los Angeles
Research Interest: Culture, Education, Race and Gender, Carceral State, Ethnography
Javier Murillo is a PhD student at UC Santa Barbara in the Department of Sociology. His research broadly examines the role of public institutions in shaping the experiences of marginalized communities, particularly as it relates to education, policing, and youth outcomes. Drawing on qualitative methods, his work explores how public schooling practices shape system-impacted youths’ interpretations of systemic oppression and community solidarity, focusing on how punitive, deficit-based logics reproduce cultures of criminalized resistance among students. By centering the unique experiences of system-impacted youth, his work offers an ethnographic approach to understanding the relationship between punitive schooling practices, political consciousness, and civic engagement. Javier earned his B.A.s in Sociology and Chicana/o & Central American studies from UCLA, where he was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellow and UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute Policy Fellow.