a bit about me.
I joined the Religion Department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Professor in 2023. My research and teaching interests include social ethics, religion & politics in the US, political theology, moral formation, complicity and responsibility, and structural injustice. I am especially interested in moral and political questions concerning schooling, policing and prisons, and borders and migration.
I am currently working on several projects related to school segregation, religion and democratic formation in public schools, and contemporary abolitionist movements.
my work around incarceration.
The vast expansion of the prison-industrial complex has meant that along with half of Americans, I have immediate family members who have experienced incarceration. During my Ph.D. program, I managed an inside-outside certificate program where students from the community joined students incarcerated at Garden State Correctional Facility to learn together.
At UIUC, I am a member of the Advisory Council for the Education Justice Project (EJP). EJP is a vibrant community of incarcerated students, educators, formerly incarcerated individuals, and others who are committed to a more just and humane world. We believe that providing quality post-secondary education within prisons is an important step towards that vision.
In Fall 2025 I will teach a for-credit course at Danville Correctional Facility, through EJP.
Click below to learn more about EJP.