My second research thread extends my meso-level focus on race, law, and organizations to consider macro-level issues of tribal sovereignty and state violence by studying treaties as contracts. One set of papers uncovers how federal efforts to erode tribal sovereignty undermine the social, political, and legal status of Native children and families through the child welfare system. Another set finds similar efforts to erode tribal sovereignty in U.S. courts, federal land claims, higher education, and tribal business partnerships. My current multi-method research investigates how settler colonial logics continue to disproportionately expose Native people to the criminal legal and child welfare systems simultaneously.
None of this work would be possible without those who experience and resist everyday violence. I honor this truth by fully committing to publicly engaged scholarship, meaningful and reciprocal community partnerships, and translating social scientific findings into policy interventions that challenge the systemic inequalities my work uncovers.
My published work can be found in high-impact interdisciplinary journals, such as Criminology, Punishment & Society, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, the Columbia Journal of Race and Law, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal. Additionally, my work has been recognized with generous funding from the Ford Foundation (2023-2024), the William T. Grant Foundation (2021-2024), and the Spencer Foundation (2021-2022). I am especially honored to have received the international Law and Society Association’s John Hope Franklin Article Prize (2022) and the American Sociological Association’s Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Distinguished Early Career Award (2022).
Welcome and greetings!
I’m an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. I earned my Ph.D. in Sociology at Cornell University in 2019 and my J.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014.
My research examines how the nation’s settler colonial origins shape contemporary U.S. social institutions. I trace this legacy by analyzing the use of legal contracts and their role in perpetuating exclusion, marginalization, and racial oppression. This work spans 1) the criminal legal system, 2) the child welfare system, and 3) tribal-federal government relations with an emphasis on policing and family policing.
In one research thread, I examine urban policing and police accountability through a race, class, and labor lens. I am especially interested in the ways that police unions, mayors, and other power elites use contract language to address police violence and the social and legal options residents pursue in the aftermath of that violence. My ongoing research examines national police unions and communities that are reimagining the future of U.S. policing through movements to defund and abolish the police.
CONTACT
I collaborate with scholars, students, politicians, journalists, and community organizers on various projects about policing, family policing, and social inequality.
I also respond to requests for speaking engagements and expert witness services.
If setting up a time to meet on such issues would be helpful, please feel free to get in touch at tyrb@uw.edu.