Man in a suit speaking to a group of people. A judge, sitting at their desk is behind the man speaking.
The School of Law's international program holds a mock trial in the Moot Courtroom in King Hall. (Karen Higgins/UC Davis)

Beyond the Barriers offers carceral justice summer research grants

Research grant program open to undergraduate, graduate and law students

  • by Ginger M Welsh

The Beyond the Barriers initiative strives to support and recognize formerly incarcerated and system-impacted students, faculty and staff and their important contributions to research initiatives and campus life. It promotes this endeavor with innovative research that centralizes and addresses the challenges that mass incarceration and the over-reliance on imprisonment have presented in California and the United States.

The Beyond the Barriers carceral justice research grants recognize the importance of research on mass incarceration and the increase of attention to issues related to incarceration and imprisonment including: California prisons and jails, crimmigration, immigration detention, race, gender and class inequity, prisons and the environment, school to prison pipeline, carceral systems, prison technologies, prison industrial complex, prison geographies, California and U.S. prison policing history, juvenile justice, sentencing, social justice, restorative justice, the war on drugs and gangs, carceral economies, racial capitalism, gender and sexuality, and parole and bail.

Prizes are awarded to undergraduate, graduate and law school students. 

Eligibility: 

  • Undergraduates may submit research or creative projects. Projects may be honors theses, class reports or research papers, video documentaries, visual arts projects, collaborative design projects, and science and social science research. 
  • Graduate students may submit master theses, dissertation proposals, completed dissertations, single- or first-authored publications, visual arts projects, documentary work or collaborative design projects. 
  • Law students may submit articles, papers, law review articles, manuscripts, visual or design projects.

Deadline for submission is Saturday, June 22.

Submissions should represent original work that advances the understanding of the issues in the field of prison and carceral studies. Entrants will be judged on methodological, innovative and substantive quality.

 Required materials:

  • Application form (attached below)
  • Abstract or summary of research not to exceed 350 words
  • Link or attachment to the submitted work 
  • CV, resume or biography 

Awardee recognition:

  • Up to $1,000
  • Announcement on the Beyond the Barriers website
  • Invitation to speak at the Beyond the Barriers research event   

All materials must be submitted by June 22. Application materials will not be returned.

Please submit application materials to cuevas@ucdavis.edu with the subject heading BTB summer research grant.

Download application