My research and teaching interests center upon geographical approaches to political economy, feminist and critical race theory, and critical poverty and prison studies. My work draws from feminist and anti-racist theories to analyze and contest poverty, unequal political economic landscapes, and geographies of white supremacy. I have several projects that bring together these themes: First, my research on gender, race, and post-incarceration geographies analyzes the socio-spatial implications of gendered social reproduction and the criminalization of poverty through an examination of women’s care networks and survival strategies following incarceration. Second, I am involved in a multidisciplinary research project with collaborators from public health, history, and film called Transforming Justice, which examines geographies of incarceration in Milwaukee, Wisconsin through community-engaged research. This project explores the the interconnections among security, justice, and community health through research that centers those most impacted by prison expansion and through the development of new media landscapes and public archives that demonstrate the uneven, lived geographies of mass incarceration. Third, I continue to explore the politics of prison sitings in relation to dynamics of race/ethnicity, class and the political economic processes of restructuring and uneven urban and rural development. Finally, I conduct research (with Judith Kenny) that investigates non-profit housing provision in the context of the normalization of non-profit welfare, neoliberal community development, and urban housing crisis.
