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My research focuses on criminal justice and welfare policies in the lead-up to and aftermath of the Great Society in the United States. Using the careers of James Q. Wilson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan as a primary lens, the study examines the relationship between ideas, politics, and scientific debates in the country’s punitive shift. Of particular interest is how, when, and which scientific studies and debates were brought into the political process surrounding crime and poverty—and when and which were not. I focus on Wilson and Moynihan’s involvement with federal policymaking, the political culture of American individualism, and the rhetoric and policies of four presidents (Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton). Questions of race, class, and declining societal and institutional trust in the period are also central. Influenced by recent developments in neuroscience, psychology, and biology, the study aims to combine the history of science with intellectual and political history to probe the United States’ approach to dealing with crime and poverty in the period.
Awards | Grants | Scholarships
2024: Commonwealth Fund, UCL History Department
2024: Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities (funding for doctoral research)
2022: Sara Norton Fund, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
2021: Education and Social Justice Research Fellowship at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
Publications
2023: "A Bronx Oasis: The Effect of College Programs in Prison and the Community of Ignacio House," Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs
