Marie Gottschalk (born December 17, 1958) is an American political scientist and professor of political science at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, known for her work on
mass incarceration
Incarceration in the United States is a primary form of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceratio ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Gottschalk is the author of ''The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America'' (2006) and ''Caught: the Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics'' (2016). Her research investigates the origins of the
carceral state
The concept of a carceral archipelago was first used by the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault in his 1975 publication, '' Surveiller et Punir'', to describe the modern penal system of the 1970s, embodied by the well-known penal ins ...
in the United States, the critiques of the scope and size of the carceral network, and the intersections of the carceral state with race and economic inequality.
Early life
Gottschalk was born on December 17, 1958. She received her B.A. in history from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
, her M.P.A. from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
’s
Woodrow Wilson School
The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...
, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
.
Career
In the 1980s she spent two years in China as a university lecturer and published on international relationships between China and the United States under the Bush administration.
By 1992, after having worked as a journalist, she was associate editor of ''
World Policy Journal
''World Policy Journal'' was the flagship publication of the World Policy Institute, published by Duke University Press. Focusing on international relations, the publication provided left-wing, non-United States-centric perspectives to world issue ...
'' (WPJ). In a 1992 WPJ article she echoed concerns expressed by ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'' journalist, Colman McCarthy that the American media, which were under "unprecedented restrictions" during the
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
, was—like the "American consumer, corporation and Congress"—being profoundly re-shaped by the Bush administration.
Before joining the University of Pennsylvania, she also worked as a visiting scholar at the
Russell Sage Foundation and as a
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...
Distinguished Lecturer in
Japan. She served on the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
' National Task Force on Mass Incarceration and the
National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration.
She was featured in the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-nominated 2016 documentary ''
13th
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...
''.
Selected publications
In her widely cited 2006 book entitled, ''The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America'',
Gottschalk traced the nationalization and politicization of law and order, the relationship between power and punishment, the origins and construction of the
carceral state
The concept of a carceral archipelago was first used by the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault in his 1975 publication, '' Surveiller et Punir'', to describe the modern penal system of the 1970s, embodied by the well-known penal ins ...
in the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s, prison activism and prison rights, public policies in the penal system, and capital punishment.
In her 2008 ''
Annual Review of Political Science'' article, "Hiding in Plain Sight: American Politics and the Carceral State", she traced the "emergence, consolidation and "explosive growth" of the American carceral state as a "major milestone in American political development", that was "unprecedented" among Western countries and in US history."
She called for more research on the causes and consequences of the "retributive turn" in American penal policies. She described the carceral turn in academic research from the late 1990s onwards, with disciplines, such as criminology, sociology, law, and political science, investigating "politics and the origins of the carceral state." By the 2000s, new research expanded the scope of the literature on the carceral state to include its "political consequences" and to analyse its implications. The sheer size of the carceral state was beginning to "transform fundamental democratic institutions." According to Gottschalk, democratic "free and fair elections" and "accurate and representative census" were no longer assured. The literature on American politics and the carceral state which has expanded far beyond criminal justice, included "voter turnout", the "vanishing voter," the role of
neoliberalism
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
in the economic policies of the 1990s, and the rise of the national Republican Party. She wrote that this new "scholarship on the carceral state" also raises concerns regarding "power and resistance for marginalized and stigmatized groups."
Her 2014 online publication, ''Caught'', Gottschalk, was a scathing critique of the American carceral state, which she described as "metastasizing". She investigated the carceral phenomenon through the lens of race, sex offenders, political and economic inequality, the criminalization of immigration, recidivism, and the continuum of the carceral network beyond prison walls.
It was re-published with the title, ''Caught: the Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics'', by
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...
in 2016.
She examined the impact of the
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
—the financial crisis of 2007–2008—
on the "Great Confinement".
In the first chapter Gottschalk described how "a tenacious carceral state has sprouted in the shadows of mass imprisonment and has been extending its reach far beyond the prison gate. It includes not only the country’s vast archipelago of jails and prisons, but also the far-reaching and growing penal punishments and controls that lies in the never-never land between the prison gate and full citizenship. As it sunders families and communities and radically reworks conceptions of democracy, rights, and citizenship, the carceral state poses a formidable political and social challenge." She said that until the carceral turn in the social sciences in the late 1990s, "mass imprisonment was largely an invisible issue in the United States". By 2014, there was widespread criticism of mass incarceration but very modest reform.
Reviews and mentions
Gottschalk is widely cited in research related to the carceral state.
Cornell Center for Social Sciences professor, Peter K. Enns, who is the author of ''Incarceration Nation: How the United States Became the Most Punitive Democracy in the World'' (2016) described Gottschalk's 2006 ''The Prison and the Gallows'', as "pathbreaking."
Enns agrees with Gottschalk's conclusion that policymakers overestimate the public's opinion on crime as more punitive than it is.
He cites Gottschalk's ''Caught'', saying that statistics on the millions in America's jails and prisons, understate the "scope of the carceral state", which more than triples when including those on probation and parole.
13th
The 2016
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
documentary, ''
13th
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...
'' by director
Ava DuVernay
Ava Marie DuVernay (; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, television producer and former film publicist. She is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee ...
, and entitled after the 1865
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House of Representative ...
—which abolished slavery—explores the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States."
[Manohla Dargis, "Review: ‘13TH,’ the Journey From Shackles to Prison Bars"](_blank)
''The New York Times'', September 29, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2017 ''Caught'' was cited by Supreme Court Justice
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...
in her dissenting opinion in ''
Utah v. Strieff
''Utah v. Strieff'', 579 U.S. 232, 136 S. Ct. 2056 (2016), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States limited the scope of the Fourth Amendment's exclusionary rule.
Background
In December 2006, South Salt Lake, Utah police began ...
''.
In ''13'', this scene is featured.
Awards and honors
''The Prison and the Gallows'' won the 2007
Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the
Organization of American Historians,
[
''Caught'' won the 2016 Michael Harrington Book Award from the New Political Science Section of the American Political Science Association.]
References
External links
Faculty page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottschalk, Marie
Living people
1958 births
Women political scientists
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Cornell University alumni
Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni
Yale University alumni
American women journalists
American women academics
21st-century American women