Ernest K. Chavez
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. – University of California, Irvine. Criminology, Law and Society.
Graduate Studies Emphasis in Race and Justice Studies; Critical Theory
M.S. – San Jose State University. Justice Studies.
B.A. – University of California, Santa Cruz. Psychology.
De Anza Community College, Psychology.
My research examines the American prison system and its role in sustaining structural racism and anti-black violence. Specifically, I investigate the historical continuities between racial slavery and mass incarceration, using frameworks offered by abolitionist thought, black feminism, critical theory, and the political economy of punishment.
In a second line of research, I am interested in how prison healthcare reform has medicalized, expanded, and entrenched mass incarceration—ultimately renewing the carceral project.
- Race, Mass Incarceration, and Inequality
- Critical Theories of Punishment
- Prison Healthcare Reform
- Social Death, Civil Death, and Anti-blackness
- The Political Economy of Punishment
- Black Liberation and Black Feminist Theories of Abolition
- Prisoner Memoirs
