Safety, Law, and Justice

Assistant Professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work

Aaron Gottlieb is broadly interested in the criminal justice system and inequality. In particular, Dr. Gottlieb seeks to understand the causes of criminal justice involvement and approaches to reducing the use of incarceration and mitigating the negative consequences of criminal justice involvement for those already impacted.

Associate Professor, Sociology & Black Studies

Andy Clarno’s research focuses on the relationship between racism, capitalism, colonialism, and policing in the early 21st century. He studies the race and class dynamics of neoliberal restructuring, racialized policing in contexts of extreme inequality, and contestations over inequality by urban social movements. Dr. Clarno has three substantive areas of expertise: the political economy of contemporary Palestine/Israel, the dynamics of race and class in post-apartheid South Africa, and emergent strategies of policing in Chicago.

Associate Professor, History

Dr. Todd-Breland’s research focuses on 20th-century United States urban and social history, African American history, and the history of education. She is working scholars, organizers, and survivors in the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Oral History Project to create an oral history project addressing the legacies of racialized torture against Black Chicagoans and they hope that this liberatory memory project will empower other communities to engage with reparations policy as a transformative means to address state violence.

Associate Professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work

Dr. Henrika McCoy largely focuses her research on African American males. She examines how mental health issues precipitate their involvement into the juvenile justice system. Most recently her National Institute of Justice-funded nationwide study, SURVIVE, focused on creating and pilot testing an instrument that could increase our knowledge about the violent victimization experiences, and related impact, of young Black males, ages 18 to 24.

Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Justice

Dr. Frohmann works with communities using participatory action research methods, including photography, observation, and interviews, to explore issues of trauma, violence, resilience and resistance. Her most recent project is with Urban Native women in Chicago exploring experiences of interpersonal, cultural, structural and historical violence and acts of resiliency that have maintained Native identities and communities in the city.

Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies & Global Asian Studies

Dr. Naber’s research theorizes the racialization of Arab and Muslim Americans within the contexts of empire and diaspora and seeks to answer the following: How can Arab American Studies respond to Orientalism and tackle sexism, homophobia, and racism in ways that neither reinscribe Arab-bashing nor engage in Orientalism? Dr. Naber’s current research focuses on the impact of state violence (policing/prisons; immigration; and war/surveillance) on mothers of color, highlighting what the visions and strategies of mother-activists bring to Chicago-based social justice movements.

Associate Professor, Social Foundations of Education

Nicole Nguyen’s most recent research examines how current national security policies mobilize social service providers as terrorist watchdogs and intensify the criminalization of Muslim youth. She is author of A Curriculum of Fear: Homeland Security in US Public Schools (2016) and Suspect Communities: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror (2019).

Assistant Professor, Criminology, Law, and Justice

Rahim Kurwa’s work situates policing at the frontier of fair housing law. His book project, Grounds for Eviction: Race, Mobility, and Policing in the Antelope Valley demonstrates this claim by tracing how a Los Angeles suburb used policing to evict Black renters participating in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. Professor Kurwa is also interested in understanding the family implications of policing housing assistance, nuisance ordinances, neighborhood surveillance, and the history of policing in public housing.