Katherine Maldonado Fabela is a mother scholar from South Central Los Angeles, and a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research interests include medical sociology, inequalities, critical criminology, and visual methodology. Her research previously examined the experiences of gang-affiliated mothers and the health effects of criminalization and violence, what she conceptualized as life course criminalization. She is building on this work in a global comparative ethnography on gangs in collaboration with the Foundation for the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Switzerland, examining maternal stressors of gang-affiliated mothers. Currently, her research examines the experiences of Latina/Chicana mothers with the carceral system, specifically the child welfare system. The investigation centers the institutional violence that mothers navigate via child welfare, how it affects their mental health, and the ways they resist and heal from multiple forms of criminalization through motherwork strategies. 

 

Katherine is a Pre-Doctoral Ford Foundation Fellow, American Sociology Association Minority Fellow, and American Association of University Women Fellow, among others. Her research has been funded and recognized by grants including NSF, Abolitionist Teaching Network grant, Women’s Health, Gender and empowerment grant, among others. Katherine’s research has been published in the Journal of Critical Criminology, Aztlan Journal of Chicana/o Studies, Criminal Justice Education as well as multiple book chapters. Her work has been included in policymaking toolkits at the United Nations and she has served as an expert witness in immigration asylum cases.