Department of Sociology

Year of Entry: 2024

Quentin Jenkins Jr. (He/Him) is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology and an affiliate of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Formerly, Quentin was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Junior Professional Research Program (JPR) at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Quentin graduated from Pitzer College and currently holds a Bachelor's in Sociology and Africana Studies with honors. Growing up on the south side of Chicago, he is a change agent and advocate for equal opportunity education. As a first-generation college graduate, Quentin hopes to continue his research to dismantle the barriers that students of color face in educational institutions. As an aspiring sociologist of education and Mellon Mays Fellow, Quentin's previous research analyzed the ways that COVID-19 exacerbated the inequalities and inequities for first-gen, low-income students of color in higher education during a summer research program at Harvard. Additionally, as a Research Assistant at Northwestern's SROP program Quentin analyzed the disparate experiences of Black LGBTQ+ students that may result in them being punished and criminalized differently from Black cis-gender heterosexual students and non-Black LGBTQ youth.

Through doctoral work at Brown, Quentin looks forward to investigating questions at the nexus of race/ethnicity, education, social inequality, and the sociology of the Black family. Outside of academe, Quentin enjoys playing volleyball, listening to music, and trying out new foods!

Quentin highly encourages prospective students from underrepresented backgrounds to reach out if they have questions about Brown Sociology!