David Knight

David Knight is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Black Studies at Yale University, where he is affiliated with the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. His research focuses on the intersection of Black studies and political sociology, examining mass incarceration, community mobilization, and policy impacts.

• Education: Ph.D. from the University of Chicago

David’s work investigates how Black communities navigate and resist the carceral state, blending qualitative and quantitative methods. His current projects include a multi-state health equity study post-2020 protests and the establishment of the Movements Against Mass Incarceration Lab (Movements Lab), which documents grassroots prison resistance histories.

His recent publications address:

• Embodied threat in prisoner mobilization
• Racialized impacts of housing vouchers on voting
• Reparations debates for carceral survivors
• Coming-of-age narratives in prison

David integrates community-based knowledge into academic frameworks to redefine policing narratives and carceral policy analysis.