Dr. Brian Cabral (he/él) is a Chicagoan, sociologist, and Assistant Professor of Youth and Community Studies in Cultural Studies in Education. His broader scholarly agenda is attentive to inquiries related to race, place, language, and carcerality. His most recent project is focused on the educational, schooling, and reentry experiences of formerly incarcerated youth enrolled in a community-based organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. The central focus of his work, however, is on broadening conceptions of the intimate relations between schools and prisons, particularly in the pK-12 contexts. Other work is focused on the interrogation of power asymmetries, (de)coloniality, racial capitalism, and state-based violence.
Currently, Brian is working on manuscripts related to the youth carceral state, community-based youthwork, schooling reentry, and educational abolitionism. His previous writings can be found in Race, Ethnicity and Education, Educational Studies, Critical Sociology, American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Journal of School Violence, to name a few.
Brian received his PhD in the Race, Inequality, and Language in Education program at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education, with a specialization in Sociology of Education. He also received his MA in Sociology at Stanford and BA in Sociology with distinction (highest honors) at Oberlin College. Brian is also a product of Chicago Public Schools, particularly a proud graduate from Social Justice High School, located in the Little Village neighborhood of Mexican Chicago.
Ph.D. in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education, Stanford University, 2024
M.A. in Sociology, Stanford University, 2021
B.A. in Sociology (Highest Honors), Oberlin College, 2018
Racialization, Language Ideology, Educational Carcerality, Place, Coloniality, Abolitionism, Youthwork, Latinx Communities, Ethnography, Journey Mapping, and Narrative Inquiry
Alumni Elected Trustee, Board of Trustees, Oberlin College(2018 - 2021)
Cabral, B. (2024). Get with it: Extending the study of educational carcerality and an educational abolitionism praxis.
Educational Studies,
60(3), 289–307. doi:
10.1080/00131946.2023.2280739.
Cabral, B. (2024). Coming from México for a Better Life Here: Street Gangs, American Violence, and the Spatialized Contours and Historical Continuity of Racial Capitalism. Critical Sociology, 1–22. doi:10.1177/08969205231221252.
Annamma, S., Cabral, B., Harvey, B., Wilmot, J., Le, A. & Morgan, J. (2024). When We Come to Your Class
We Feel Not Like We're in Prison: Resisting Prison-Schools Dehumanizing and (De) Socializing Mechanisms Through Abolitionist Praxis.
American Educational Research Journal,
61(1), 3–47. doi:
10.3102/00028312231198236.
Harvey, B., Cabral, B., Annamma, S. & Morgan, J. (2024). Aint Nobody About to Trap me: The Violence of Multi-System Collusion and Entrapment for Incarcerated Disabled Girls of Color.
Journal of School Violence,
23(2), 202–219. doi:
10.1080/15388220.2023.2297035.
Song, D. & Cabral, B. (2024). Foreword. Supporting College Students of Immigrant Origin: New Insights from Research, Policy, and Practice (pp. xxvii–xxxiii): Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009408240.001.
Cabral, B. (2023). Linguistic Confinement: Rethinking the Racialized Interplay between Educational Language Learning and Carcerality.
Race, Ethnicity and Education,
26(3), 277–297. doi:
10.1080/13613324.2022.2069742.
Rocha, J., Cabral, B., Chen, E., Rodriguez, C. & Yancy, C. (2023). Integrative supports, resources, and opportunitiesExploring and expanding urban high school students science identity: A longitudinal qualitative study.
Gifted Child Quarterly,
67(1), 44–63. doi:
10.1177/00169862221119209.
Cabral, B., Annamma, S. & Morgan, J. (2023). When you carry a lot: The forgotten spaces of youth prison schooling for incarcerated disabled girls of color.
Teachers College Record,
125(5), 95–113. doi:
10.1177/01614681231181816.
Cabral, B. & Bruno, S. (2023). [Folk]tales of different peoples: Transgressing gang definitions and historical ties.
Critical and Intersectional Gang Studies (1ed., pp. 47–63): Routledge. doi:
10.4324/9781003159797.
Annamma, S., Nanda, J., Cabral, B. & Morgan, J. (2023). The US Failed Jordan Neely and Banko Brown Long Before They Were Murdered. Truthout.
Cabral, B., Annamma, S. & Morgan, J. (2023). Prison-Schools [Factsheet].
Teachers College Record,
125(5), 114–117. doi:
10.1177/01614681231181819.
Cabral, B., Annamma, A., Le, A., Harvey, B., Wilmot, J. & Morgan, J. (2022). Solidarity incarcerated: Building authentic relationships with girls of color in youth prisons.
Teachers College Record,
124(7), 174–200. doi:
10.1177/01614681221111458.
Rocha, J., Cabral, B., Landeros, J. & Yancy, C. (2022). Why continuity of STEM-medicine participation matters: Exploring a culture of transformation and the optimization of college socialization.
Journal of Advanced Academics,
33(3), 433–468. doi:
10.1177/1932202X221098008.
Cristina Maria Riegos Student Paper Award, Latina/o Sociology Section for the American Sociological Association (ASA) (2024)
Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS) Small Grant, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (2023)
Dissertation Support Grant (DSG), Graduate School of Education, Stanford University (2023)
Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence (DARE) Fellowship, Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Stanford University (2022 - 2024)
Preparing Future Professors (PFP) Fellowship, Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education, Stanford University (2021 - 2022)
Predoctoral Fellowship, Ford Foundation, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2020 - 2023)
Graduate Public Service (GPS) Fellowship, Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford University (2020 - 2021)
Student Projects for Intellectual Community Enhancement (SPICE) Grant, Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education, Stanford University (2020 - 2021)
Deans Collaborative Learning Fund Grant, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University (2019 - 2022)
Graduate Scholars-in-Residence (GSR) Fellowship, El Centro Chicano y Latino, Stanford University (2019 - 2023)
Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Doctoral Fellowship, Vice Provost for Graduate Education, Stanford University (2018)
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Office of Undergraduate Fellowships, Oberlin College (2016 - 2018)
