Dr. Uriel Serrano

Dr. Uriel Serrano is a Community Power Postdoctoral Scholar at ERI. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz. In his research, he employs interview, ethnographic, archival, and survey analysis to study how racially minoritized communities experience and engage racial hierarchies and social structures. He does so with a focus on the carceral state, youth, schools, and community organizing. His research agenda extends these substantive interests—as well as his methodological interests in mixed-methods research and community-rooted research—by examining the practices and consequences of policing racially minoritized young people, the role of organizations (like schools, school boards, and community-based educational spaces) in shaping the lives of racially minoritized youth, and how community organizations respond to criminalization and surveillance.

Dr. Serrano’s dissertation project developed a framework (carceral seepage) to capture the overlooked processes and experiences of youth coming of age in the City of Angels. His forthcoming publications address the scale and pace of the carceral state by examining the consequences of carceral seepage. Dr. Serrano delineates carceral seepage as the formal institutions, physical enclosures, and operations of the carceral state and its auxiliaries but also the logics, ideologies, and practices underlying it. Future publications will describe how community-based organizations have the potential to act as a buffer against the consequences of carceral seepage at the interpersonal level.

Dr. Serrano has collaborated with youth organizations, youth workers, and Dr. Veronica Terriquez to publish two manuscripts, produce eight research reports, and create op-eds focused on youth issues and education. He engages audiences beyond academia through these collaborations and encourages more community-informed approaches. For example, in a co-authored manuscript with youth workers, they name community-rooted and research praxis as an approach to advance youth participatory action research and partnerships between youth organizations and academics.

Dr. Serrano was born and raised in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood, known colloquially as The Jungles. He brings over ten years of experience as a youth worker and educator to his research and teaching. Dr. Serrano is also a proud Cal State alumni, avid wrestling fan, a self-proclaimed quesadilla expert, and Duke’s favorite human.