Law and Punishment
Background: The Law and Punishment Working Group (LPWG) in the UCLA Department of Sociology is an interdisciplinary space for scholars interested in the sociological study of law, punishment, criminalization, surveillance, carcerality, and state power. We aim to foster critical dialogue and support graduate student research at all stages while building connections across and beyond the department with scholars whose work engages these themes.
Objectives: The LPWG seeks to provide a supportive and rigorous forum for graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and other scholars to share works in progress, develop research agendas, and critically engage with new and established literature on law and punishment. Our objectives include:
- Supporting graduate student research and professional development through regular paper and proposal workshops.
- Facilitating discussions of contemporary books and scholarship through reading groups and author events.
- Creating interdisciplinary connections with scholars across UCLA whose work touches on law, punishment, and related themes.
- Facilitating cross-disciplinary, global, and interdisciplinary knowledge of critical frameworks and methodologies, including but not limited to abolitionist, feminist, decolonial, political economic, and legal approaches, as well as methods such as ethnography, archival research, legal analysis, and quantitative methodologies.
For more information on upcoming events and/or to be added to our mailing list, please contact the student coordinators: Prashasti Bhatnagar (prashastib@g.ucla.edu), Anu Biswas (anumohanbiswas@g.ucla.edu), and Kai Bovik (bovik@g.ucla.edu). Our faculty coordinators include: Faith Deckard, Chris Herring, Cecilia Menjívar, and Naomi Sugie.
