“History is not only in the past — it is being made as researchers look for stories to tell.” – Benzecry et al. 2020
Want to learn more about the Mass Incarceration Lab Archive and how you can use it in your own projects and research?
Come explore the archives with Brown University Seniors Anna Brent-Levenstein ’25 and Justin Li ’25 as they share their research and curation projects. They show how their work with the Mass Incarceration Lab inspired their vision for social science research, art, and the act of preserving the narratives of incarcerated people and their families.
Join us on Monday, April 28, 2025, from noon to 1 p.m. for a lively discussion moderated by Professor Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve in the Library’s newly established Racial Justice Resource Center on the 2nd floor of the Rockefeller Library (with food!).
In-person event. Lunch will be served.
Registration Encouraged
Sponsors
Brown University Library, Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Mass Incarceration Lab
Mass Incarceration Lab
The United States incarcerates the world’s largest prison population, caging, surveilling and supervising more people than any other nation. The Mass Incarceration Lab was founded by Professor Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve and is supported by The Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and the Brown University Library. The Center for Digital Scholarship at the Library has worked as part of the core project team since Fall 2021. The lab curates a comprehensive archive of mass incarceration in the United States, centering and preserving the narratives and writings of those individuals (including family and community members) who have been impacted by the criminal justice system. Part of this project contributes to the John Hay Library’s strategic collecting area Voices of Mass Incarceration in the United States.
Student Presentations
Anna Brent Levenstein ’25
Anna is a senior concentrating in history and sociology. Her research interests include issues of race, racism, and mass incarceration, gendered labor, and reproductive justice. Anna worked for the archive in her capacity as a teaching and research assistant for Professor Gonzalez Van Cleve, building an archive of mass incarceration and using oral histories to understand how women advocate for incarcerated people. Her work challenges the criminology and sociology fields, which often overlook the legal and social advocacy of system-impacted women.
Women Are Our Rehabilitation: Familial Labor and Advocacy in an Era of Mass Incarceration
Anna’s presentation, “Women Are Our Rehabilitation: Familial Labor and Advocacy in an Era of Mass Incarceration,” utilizes oral histories to understand the experiences of women with incarcerated family members, an understudied population within academic literature. It analyzes women’s legal consciousnesses, or how they understand the law and legal system, and their resulting strategies of action and advocacy on behalf of their family members and other incarcerated people. It argues that women with incarcerated family members identify the systemic failings within the legal system and perform significant labor to fill in for their family members’ needs and work towards their release from prison.
Justin Li ’25
Justin Li ’25 is a Brown RISD Dual Degree student studying social analysis and research, and painting. Drawing from his background bridging the arts, business, and nonprofit impact, Justin’s research investigates cross-sector approaches to social change. He explores the importance of art in an age of rapid technological advancement and its relationship with anti-carceral advocacy.
Curating Abu-Jamal Exhibit
In 2023, Justin served as one of three curators for the Mumia Abu-Jamal exhibit. Anyone can view the materials from the exhibit that have been digitized in the Brown Digital Repository. Across the year-long journey, he analyzed over 2,000 objects including essays, disciplinary notices, and judicial records from the personal collection of former Black Panther and political activist Abu-Jamal. In this talk, Justin will discuss his experience dissecting the world’s largest archive of a currently incarcerated person.