University of Wisconsin–Madison

Adaner Usmani, John Clegg, and Christopher Lewis

Challenges in the Study of Mass Incarceration

From Plantation to Prison: The Origins of American Mass Incarceration

Adaner Usmani, John Clegg

Monday, March 21, 1:00 PM (US CT)

What’s Wrong with Mass Incarceration?

Adaner Usmani, Christopher Lewis

Tuesday, March 22, 12 noon (US CT)

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John Clegg is a Postdoctoral fellow in Economic History at Lund University. He works on the history of slavery and emancipation in the Americas, as well as the formation of the modern carceral state. His research interests include political economy, economic history, the economics of crime and punishment, and stratification. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from NYU and was Harper-Schmidt Fellow at the University of Chicago (2018-2022). His work has appeared in The Cambridge Journal of Economics, The Journal of Historical Sociology, and Criminology, as well as Catalyst and South Atlantic Quarterly.

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Christopher Lewis is Assistant Professor at Harvard Law School. His research examines how the law (especially the criminal law) can be more fairly and efficiently administered in response to social and economic inequality in the United States. Before joining the law school faculty, he was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. His scholarship has been published in the DuBois Review, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the Emory Law Journal, and will appear in the American Journal of Law and Equality.

Smiling man with wavy dark brown hair wearing a blue button-down shirt. Rows of books can be seen in the background.

Adaner Usmani is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Social Studies at Harvard University. His research is driven by two questions: Why do some people flourish while others suffer? And, what explains why, in some places but not others, movements or policies emerge to challenge or moderate this inequality? In one project, he explores when and why ordinary individuals manage to coordinate collective action, and how well these patterns explain the forward march of democracy and the extent of economic redistribution. In a different project, he studies the origins and consequences of American mass incarceration.

 

 

 

 

Due to COVID-19, all Havens Wright Center events were hosted online via Zoom.