CARL
The Campus Abolition Research Lab (CARL) is an interdisciplinary research incubator focused on leveraging data, research evidence, and critical analyses to disrupt and dismantle the carceral university. Through public programs and events, CARL brings together scholars, practitioners, and organizers to collaboratively reimagine postsecondary education as a life-affirming institution.
CARL RESEARCH TEAM
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Amber Williams
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Amber Williams is a research affiliate at the Campus Abolition Research Lab, and a doctoral candidate in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. As a black woman who espouses critical and humanistic epistemologies, her research explores how antiracism and critical race pedagogies promote racial consciousness in graduate social work education. -
Brandy Jones
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Brandy is a research associate at the Campus Abolition Research Lab and second-year doctoral student at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Brandy’s research illuminates the role of minority-serving institutions as exemplars with the potential to challenge the mold of traditional institutions and, ultimately, revolutionize the landscape of higher education.
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Cassandra Arroyo
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Cassandra is a research affiliate at the Campus Abolition Research Center and a doctoral candidate in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. As a Mexicana-Boricua scholar, her research focuses on the intersection of higher education policy and college access for Latina/o/x students. She has experience working for Lumina Foundation and Excelencia in Education researching Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and institutional resilience in Puerto Rico.
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Jarell Skinner-Roy
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Jarell (he/him) is a research associate at the Campus Abolition Research Lab and third-year doctoral candidate in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Jarell’s current research examines the ways racially minoritized students conceptualize safety and security in the context of racialized policing and surveillance on college and university campuses. Prior to attending U-M, Jarell taught English in Benin, worked at an education nonprofit in Minneapolis, and led international programs abroad for high school students.
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Laura Lee Smith
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Laura Lee (she/her) is a research associate at the Campus Abolition Research Lab and a fourth-year doctoral student in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Laura Lee’s Laura Lee's research interests include Race & Ethnicity, Race in Education, Critical Whiteness Studies, and Social Justice Education. She also specializes in dialogue facilitation and instructional design. In her personal time, Laura Lee enjoys watching television and theatre, cooking, kayaking, and resting.
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Nia Hall
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Nia Hall is a research associate at the Campus Abolition Research Lab and a first-year doctoral student in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. A Northern California native, Nia’s training in Africana/Black Studies greatly influence her research interests, which broadly examines the history and evolution of campus policing, abolitionist praxis in student resistance, and restorative justice in higher education. Prior to UMich, Nia gained experience working as a student affairs professional in residence life HSIs and HBCUs.
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Taylor Lewis
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Taylor Lewis (he/him) is a Black trans scholar of West Indian heritage. He is a research associate at the Campus Abolition Research Lab and a third-year doctoral student in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Taylor’s work broadly explores race and racism, particularly Blackness and Anti-Blackness in higher education contexts through an intersectional lens with an emphasis on campus safety, resistance, activism, political power, life-making, and liberatory futures.
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Yvonne Garcia
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Yvonne (she/her) is a Mexican scholar born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She is a research associate at the Campus Abolition Research Lab and a doctoral candidate in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Yvonne’s currently working on her dissertation, which explores the socialization of graduate students into racialized knowledge systems that systemically undermines the knowledge of racially minoritized communities under the pretense of academic rigor and merit.
CARL RESEARCH FELLOWS
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Brenda Anderson Wadley
VISITING DOCTORAL FELLOW
Brenda Anderson Wadley is a visiting doctoral fellow at the Campus Abolition Research Center and a doctoral candidate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. Drawing on critical qualitative methodologies, her research scrutinizes and interrogates structural oppression in higher education that impedes the success of minoritized communities. Informed by her prior experience supporting survivors of campus sexual violence as a campus advocate, Brenda’s dissertation examines how institutional conceptions of safety do or do not meet the needs of students with multiple marginalized identities.
Mrs. Wadley is the former Interim Director of African American Student Affairs at the University of Arizona and served as Senior Coordinator in the Office of Diversity & Inclusion. She received her master’s in College Student Affairs Administration from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Mrs. Wadley is also the recipient of the 2023 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
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Dr. Jude Paul Dizon
VISITING FACULTY FELLOW
Dr. Jude Paul Dizon is a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Campus Abolition Research Lab. Jude Paul's work examines the structural conditions that produce the contradictions experienced by racially minoritized students through qualitative methods and critical ethnic studies. His current research agenda examines the carceral university, or the relationship between the carceral state and higher education with a focus on race, class, and gender inequities. Jude Paul grew up in a working-class Filipino immigrant family in the Bay Area, which shaped his activism for educational justice, immigrant rights, and labor rights. He has supported formerly incarcerated Asian American and Pacific Islanders in their re-entry and is an active member in local and national Cops Off Campus movements.
Jude Paul is currently an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at California State University, Stanislaus. He earned a Ph.D. in Urban Education Policy from the University of Southern California, a master's degree in higher education and student affairs administration at the University of Vermont, and a bachelor's degree in development studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Dr. Sy Stokes
EXECUTIVE RESEARCH FELLOW
Dr. Sy Stokes is an Executive Research Fellow at the Campus Abolition Research Lab. Dr. Stokes currently serves as Vice President of Research at Coqual where he directs the qualitative research team in identifying solutions for advancing equity in the workplace. Prior to Coqual, Sy was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the National Center for Institutional Diversity and Lecturer for the School of Education at the University of Michigan. His award-winning research focused on campus racial climate, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and student activism. His work has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today, Huffington Post, BET, and MSNBC, among numerous other outlets. He was also a lead consultant for the Racial Equity Data Institute (REDI) where he conducted climate assessments for various non-profits/corporations, K-12 schools, and higher education institutions across the nation.
Dr. Stokes received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, a Master’s in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and B.A. in African American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles
CARL DIRECTOR
Charles H.F. Davis III, Ph.D.
FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III is the founder and director of the Campus Abolition Research Lab and a faculty member in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Davis’ current research broadly examines the racialized consequences of higher education on society to include the relationship between university expansion and macro-level inequities affecting Black life-making in urban cities. As a community-engaged scholar, Dr. Davis became first-acquainted with the concept of abolition through his work as an organizer with the Dream Defenders, which later became an intellectual interest primarily through the scholarship of Angela Davis, Huey Newton, Mariame Kaba, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, W.E.B. DuBois. In attempt to connect and situate abolition in the field of higher education, Dr. Davis introduced the concept of campus abolition as a way of conceptualizing colleges and universities entanglements with the carceral state and the imagining of new possibilities for postsecondary education as a life-affirming institution.