Pharren Miller
Degrees
- C.Phil., Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2024
- M.A., Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2023
- B.A., Political Science and Afro-American Studies, Howard University, 2021
Fields of Study
Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Ethnography, Education, Black Girlhood Studies, Black Feminisms, Carcerality, Abolition
Research
Pharren Miller (she/her) is a sociology PhD candidate and 2026 National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include Black feminist theory, Black girlhood studies, education, carcerality, and abolition. She uses ethnographic observations, in-depth interviews, and life histories to examine the experiences of Black girls in schools. Ultimately, she explores if/how we can truly rebuild schooling to ensure Black girls’ needs are met through an abolitionist framework.
Her work has been supported and recognized by the National Academy of Education, American Sociological Association, American Educational Research Association, the University of California Office of the President, the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center, the UCLA Division of Graduate Education, and the W.M. Keck Foundation. Her writing has been published in leading academic journals, including Gender & Society and Youth Justice. She also engages with general audiences with an op-ed published in Spark Magazine. She is a member of and has presented her work at the American Sociological Association, the Association of Black Sociologists, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the American Educational Research Association.
Publications
- Miller, Pharren. 2025. “Critical Contradictions: How Black Girlhood in Schools Complicates Controlling Images.” Gender & Society 39, no. 5: 689–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432251375114.
- ASA Children and Youth Section 2026 Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award
- Murray, Bethany Jo, Pharren Miller, Shan Missouri, and David C. Turner III. 2025 “(Abolitionist) Care, Not Cops: How Police Free School Organizers Redefine Safety as Care” Youth Justice. https://doi.org/10.1177/14732254251399585
Awards & Grants
- 2026-2027 National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship
- 2026-2027 (declined) AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship
- 2025-2026 AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research Award
- 2025-2026 Semi-Finalist, NAEd/ Spencer Dissertation Fellowship
- 2024-2025 Jean Stone Dissertation Research Fellowship
- 2024 Summer UCLA/Keck Humanistic Inquiry Graduate Research Award
- 2023-2024 UCLA Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship
- 2023 UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Fellowship
- 2022-2023 Mariame Kaba Black Feminism Initiative Graduate Fellowship
- 2022 Honorable Mention, Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
- 2022 UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Fellowship
- 2021-Present UC-HBCU Fellowship
- 2021-2025 Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship
- 2021-2022 Susan Kellogg Endowed Student Award in the Sociology of Gender
- 2021 UCLA Competitive Edge
Conference Presentations
- “Abolition Dissonance: How Carcerality in Schools Persists in the Anti-carceral Movement.” American Educational Research Association Annual Conference. April 2026.
- “Imagining, Creating, and Sustaining Alternatives for Racially Minoritized Youth.” Panelist. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference. April 2026.
- “Chaotic Spaces: School, Space, Place, and the Criminalization of Black Students.”American Sociological Association, Chicago, Illinois. August 2025.
- Taking Stock of MeToo to Consider its Future. Invited Panelist. American Sociological Association, Montreal, Québec. August 2024.
- “ m.A.A.d City: Chaotic Spaces as Carcerality in the Afterlives of Slavery.” Association of Black Sociologists Annual Conference, Montreal, Québec. August 2024.
- “Black Girl Abolition: Safe Spaces and Acts of Refusal as Resisting Carcerality” Association of Black Sociologists Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. August 2023
- “We Got the Right to be Mad: Controlling Images, AntiBlackness, Carcerality, and Black Girlhood in Schools” 2023 SSSP Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. August 2023
- “We Won’t Stop Until It’s Done”: A Study of the LA Police-Free Schools Campaign.” Abolitions Conference at UCDC, Washington, D.C. May 2023
- “Reclaiming OUR Time: Centering Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales in the Black Feminist Tradition of Safe Spaces.” Thinking Gender 2023: Transforming Research: Feminist Methods for Times of Crisis and Possibility, Los Angeles, California. February 2023.
- “Are The (Black) Girls Alright? The Policing of Black Girls in Schools and The Ways We Resist.” Association of Black Sociologists Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois. October 2022
- “Crown Under Siege: The Policing of Black Girls’ Hair in School.” Tuskegee University History Research Symposium, Tuskegee, AL. February 2021.