Monica Bell

Bell will work on a book about efforts to reform U.S. law and policy on race and class marginalization. Drawing in part on interview data from a participatory study of black youth, she concludes that policymakers often miss an important challenge confronting lawmakers in poor communities of color: legal estrangement, or the process through which institutions perpetuate the idea that marginalized groups do not fully share in all the rights and freedoms that flow to other Americans. Bell will also conduct related research projects on policing and residential segregation, policing and local governance, and the criminal justice experiences of black young adults in the rural South.