“Uriel Serrano is a vision for the future of sociology, specifically, and the academy, broadly. Uriel seamlessly weaves his research interests with youth of color organizing and the knowledge he gained outside of the academy to inform his community-engaged work. A brilliant theorist of intersectionality, Uriel is engaging in path-breaking work on the possibilities and impossibilities of intersectional theories, while maintaining a passionate commitment to creating spaces of resistance and belonging for marginalized academics. Uriel offers us all an inspirational model for how to move in the academy.” -Dr. Rocío R. García, Assistant Professor, T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University
“Uriel Serrano is an exceptional scholar that is bound to be a thought-leader in sociology and education. His supportive and collaborative nature at conferences, his advocacy for students and colleagues of color and his sharp intellect has earned him esteem among his peers and other senior scholars. He is part of a burgeoning movement of interdisciplinary scholars that identify as the Du Bois Scholar Network – a movement rooted in the academic and public work of W.E.B. Du Bois. This foundation undoubtedly drives Mr. Serrano’s innovative work in the academy and beyond.” -Dr. Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Brown University.
I am an urban sociologist who studies inequality, resistance, and organizations, particularly in contexts of education, community organizing, and policing, using qualitative and community-engaged methods.
My research agenda examines the social conditions affecting low-income urban communities and the social actors striving to transform those realities. I am especially interested in inequality and resistance at the intersection of race, gender, and age, and how subjectivity (emotions, trauma, healing, agency), community organizing, and organizational routines, rules, and processes relate to youth and society.
I am currently a Community Power Postdoctoral Scholar at the Equity Research Institute at USC, where I lead research on grassroots organizations and educational justice movements. My research and community-engaged projects have received generous support from The California Endowment, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, the Ford Dissertation Fellowship, the University of California President’s Dissertation Fellowship, the American Sociological Association Minority Fellows Program, the Social Science Research Council, and the California State University Chancellor’s Dissertation Fellowship.
My publications have made significant contributions to understanding the routines and rules of schools and school boards, the slow violence of policing, and participation in community organizations. For example, my 2024 manuscript, “Feeling Carcerality: How Carceral Seepage Shapes Racialized Emotions,” is one of Social Problems‘ most-read articles. Additionally, I am working on a monograph tentatively titled, Struggling for Safety, which explores how youth policing in Los Angeles County is intimately tied to ideas and struggles for safety. In collaboration with Drs. Rocío García and Karina Santellano, I am also editing a special issue titled “Towards an Unruly Latinx Sociology” for Sociological Perspectives.
I was born and raised in a Los Angeles neighborhood known colloquially as “The Jungles.” I am proud to be the son of Mexican immigrants from Durango who have raised a family of educators and youth workers. I am the first in my immediate and extended family to earn a BA, MA, and a PhD, all of which inform my pedagogical approach as a professor and youth worker.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Serrano, Uriel. 2025. “Intersectional Learning: How Black and Latinx Boys Learn About Power and Difference.” Youth & Society, Online First.
Serrano, Uriel and Andrea Del Carmen Vazquez. 2025. “Safety” and “Protection” as Shared Grievances and Oblique Identification in Educational Organizations. Educational Researcher, Online First.
Serrano, Uriel. 2024. Feeling Carcerality: How Carceral Seepage Shapes Racialized Emotions. Social Problems, Online First.
Chang, Ethan, Serrano, Uriel, and Kasper, Julie. 2023. Allied Attestations: Troubling a Progressive Goodwill and ‘Duty to Speak Out’. Equity & Excellence in Education, 56(1-2), 129-143.
Serrano, Uriel. 2022. ‘Finding Home’: Campus Racial Microclimates and Academic Homeplaces at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Race Ethnicity and Education, 25(6), 815-834.
Battle, Battle and Uriel Serrano. 2022. Toward a Du Boisian Paradigm of Family Science. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 14(3), 341-363.
Serrano, Uriel, David Turner III, Gabriel Regalado, Alejandro Banuelos. (2022). Towards Community Rooted Research and Praxis: Reflections on the BSS Safety and Youth Justice Project. Social Sciences, 11(5), 195.
TEACHING
Graduate Courses Taught: Sociology of Education (CSULA), Qualitative Methods (CSULA) and History of Education (CSULA).
Undergraduate Teaching Associate: Introductory Sociology (UCLA), Race and the University (UCLA), Contemporary Social Theory (UCSC), and Research Methods (UCSC).
Links of Interest
Carceral Seepage and Healing Narratives: A Conversation with Rasheeda Imani Jones (ERI Blog)
How a Coalition Creates Paths to Healing (PBS News)
Contact
urielser at usc dot edu
Uriel Serrano 