Middlemass to discuss the politics of prisoner reentry
Dr. Keesha Middlemass, associate professor of public policy at Howard University, will visit Salve Regina to discuss her award-winning book “Convicted and Condemned: The Politics of Prisoner Reentry” as part of the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy’s fall lecture series.
The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall. To RSVP, visit the Pell Center’s Eventbrite page.
Middlemass will focus on prisoner reentry from an interdisciplinary perspective by combining first-person narratives of men and women coming home alongside an analysis of public policies. This particular approach explains why it is so hard to successfully reintegrate back into society after being convicted of a felony. Middlemass’ analysis demonstrates how public policies have created perverted incentives for men and women convicted of a felony. In addition to critiquing the politics and policies of punishment, she will offer some policy changes on how society can be more welcoming to the hundreds of thousands of men and women exiting prison every year.
Middlemass teaches courses in public policy and studies race and its connection to prisoner reentry, and the politics and policies of punishment using multiple methods (for example, ethnography, interviews, participant observation and archival research). She is currently studying food insecurity and its impact on individuals reentering society.
Her work has been published in Public Health and Nutrition, Aggressive Behavior, Criminal Justice and Behavior, the Prison Journal, Punishment and Society and Journal of Criminal Justice and Law Review. Middlemass earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in public policy and American politics from the University of Georgia.
