Dr. Alexandra J. Cavallaro (she/her/they/them) is an associate professor in the English Department and director of the Center for the Study of Correctional Education at California State University, San Bernardino.

Her research focuses on three interconnected areas of interest: literacy studies, critical prison studies, and queer studies. At the heart of this work is her interest in the silences and gaps in the official record, the edges of the canonical tradition, and the populations at the margins of institutions. Her teaching, for which she was awarded the 2021 Excellence in Instructional Activities Award, is rooted in critical and feminist philosophies of education. This entails a commitment to making connections between knowledge and power, and particularly between personal experience and larger political and historical contexts. She believes that truly meaningful pedagogy happens when we practice the belief that people deserve more dignity, humanity, and freedom than institutions currently give them.

In her role as Director of the CSCE, she facilitates prison educator trainings and coordinates the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program at CSUSB.