Bahiyyah Muhammad

Fellow

Associate Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology at Howard University

Bahiyyah M. Muhammad, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Criminology in Howard University’s Department of Sociology and Founding Director of the university’s Higher Education in Prison (HEP) Programming. She has led courses and initiatives across Howard’s Schools of Law, Divinity, Communications, Fine Arts, and Arts & Sciences in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, DC and Virginia Departments of Corrections, and DYRS. Under her leadership, Howard became the first HBCU to provide postsecondary education to incarcerated men, women, and youth, engaging over a thousand students and families.

Dr. Muhammad is a 2020–2021 Mandela Washington Reciprocal Exchange Fellow through YALI and IREX, expanding prisoner and juvenile refugee education in Eswatini. A former Franklin Fellow with the U.S. Department of State, she advised on child human-rights policy. Her service has earned numerous honors, including the Carolyn Cross Community Impact Award and the Federal Bureau of Prisons Volunteer of the Year Award.

A leading scholar on children of incarcerated parents, Dr. Muhammad has conducted hundreds of interviews worldwide and co-founded Project Iron Kids. She co-authored The Prison Alphabet coloring book, and her research appears in Criminal Justice and Behavior, Social Problems, and other journals. Her innovative teaching—dubbed the “Dr. Muhammad Experience”—has been recognized with multiple Professor of the Year awards. Her groundbreaking course, Policing Inside Out, fosters dialogue between police and Black millennials and is now offered at Morgan State and Coppin State Universities. Dr. Muhammad earned degrees from Rutgers University and John Jay College.

Brotherton, David C., Daniel Kessler, Bashir M. Muhammad, Raquel Martinez, and Lauren Kontos, editors. What’s Love Got to Do With It?: Credible Messengers and the Power of Transformative Mentoring. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, in production.

Gatewood, Brittney J., Bashir M. Muhammad, and Sydni M. T. Turner, editors. Social Revolution: Black Children of Incarcerated Parents Speak Truth to Power. New York: Routledge, 2024.

Muhammad, Bashir M., and Mélanie-Angela Neuilly, editors. Mothering from the Field: The Impact of Motherhood on Site-Based Research. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2019.

Muhammad, Bashir. “Incarcerated M/otherhood: Conversations That Raise Children from a Distance.” Journal of Mother Studies, vol. 10, 2025, online.

Muhammad, Bashir. “PhD Family Benefits: Tenured in Academia and in My Household. A Photo Essay.” Journal of Mother Studies, vol. 10, 2025, online.

Bacon, Jessica, N. D. Jenkins, Bashir M. Muhammad, and T. Estripler. “Mothering in the Margins: Black Student-Parents Navigating Higher Education.” The Humanistic Psychologist, submitted for publication.

Muhammad, Bashir, and N. D. Jenkins. “Black Mothers and Education: Doing What It Takes to Walk Across That Stage.” Journal of Motherhood Initiative, submitted for publication.

Noel, M., Brittney Gatewood, Bashir M. Muhammad, and Sydni Turner. “‘We Have Unique Experiences’: Familial Socialization of Children of Incarcerated Parents.” Criminal Justice and Behavior, vol. 28, no. 7, 2024, pp. 1–20.

Gatewood, Brittney J., Bashir M. Muhammad, and Sydni Turner. “Breaking Generational Curses: Success and Opportunity among Black Children of Incarcerated Parents.” Social Problems, vol. 23, no. 2, 2024, pp. 1–19.