The Story of Mass Incarceration

This panel features scholars working on the criminal legal system and the formerly incarcerated discussing the range of evidence that writers can use to offer illuminating perspectives on the predicament of mass incarceration.

Moderator: Michael Ralph

Featuring:

• Elizabeth Hinton
• Orisanmi Burton 
• Stanley Andrisse

Michael Ralph: Michael Ralph is the Cameron Schrier Professor and Chair of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, where he also directs the Center for an Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society. Author of Forensics of Capital (2015), his research spans debt, slavery, insurance, forensics, and incarceration. He is also an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Elizabeth Hinton: Elizabeth Hinton is Professor of History, Black Studies, and Law at Yale University. She is the author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime and America on Fire, both New York Times Notable Books. Her research examines poverty, racial inequality, policing, and mass incarceration in America.

Orisanmi Burton: Orisanmi Burton is a social anthropologist currently teaching at American University. His research examines the intersections of Black-led movements and state repression in the U.S., exploring how struggles within and against prisons shape knowledge, subjectivity, and state formation, and how state responses drive historical development and alternative futures.

Stanley Andrisse: Stanley Andrisse, MBA, Ph.D., is a tenure-track faculty member in Physiology at Howard University College of Medicine. His research focuses on insulin resistance and metabolic disease. Founder of From Prison Cells to PhD, Andrisse mentors justice-impacted individuals and chronicles his journey from incarceration to professor in his memoir of the same name.