ABOUT DR. J

My ethnographic research focuses on community policing programs in Brazilian favelas (shantytowns) and prison abolition in the United States. I have received support from the Fulbright Foundation, The Latin American Studies Association, the Ford Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Katherine Davis Fellowship for Peace. The next stage of my work will use participatory action research in collaboration with favela-based activists and scholars. 

My teaching relating to multi-model, sensory, and social media ethnography encourages a critical perspective on race, gender, and class in the criminal justice system. I have a decade of teaching experience. For the University of Colorado-Boulder, I taught both introductory and advanced anthropology, criminology, and Peace Studies courses. I also incorporated community-based learning projects for courses at selective liberal arts colleges including Beloit College's anthropology program and Carroll University's Political Science Program. I also designed introductory anthropology and sociology courses for incarcerated students at the Milwaukee Area Technical College. I am particularly interested in a problem-posing education that allows students to translate academic vocabularies for everyday life.