Researching Racial Injustice

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: about the process of researching a current event, the history of policing in the US, what “defund the police” means, the importance of mentors, challenges of demonstrating safely, and a discussion of the book Hands Up Don’t Shoot.

Our guest is: Jennifer E. Cobbina, the author of Hands Up Don’t Shoot. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Her primary research focuses on the issue of corrections, prisoner reentry and the understanding of recidivism and desistance among recently released female offenders. Her second primary research area is centered on examining how race, gender, and neighborhood context impact victimization risks among minority youth.Dr. Cobbina’s work appears in a number of top criminology journals, such as Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Crime and Delinquency, Criminal Justice & Behavior, British Journal of Criminology, and Journal of Drug Issues. She currently serves as the co-chair for the ASC Division on People of Color and Crime. She is on the editorial board of the scholarly journals Justice Quarterly, Journal of Crime & Justice, and Sociology Compass: Crime and Deviance Section.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

• Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press.
• Butler, P. Chokehold: Policing Black Men. New York: The New Press.
• Brunson, Rod K. 2007. “‘Police Don't Like Black People’: African American Young Men's Accumulated Police Experiences.” Criminology &Public Policy. 6:71-102.
• Jones, Nikki. The Chosen Ones.
• Norris, Zach. We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities. Boston, Beacon Press.
• Rios, V. Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: NYU Press.
• Ritchie, A. J. Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.