Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab Research Team

Team 1: Lucas Cole, Isabella Little, Dwyer Loughran

Team 1 researched and produced the content for "Broken Promises, 1974-1977," Section I of the Crackdown exhibit, and the accompanying section of the "Crackdown: Police Violence and Misconduct in Detroit" ArcGIS StoryMap.

Lucas Cole is a sophomore from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is studying History.

Isabella Little is from West Bloomfield, Michigan, and graduated in December 2019 with a BA in History. She plans to apply to joint JD/PhD programs to pursue a career in international human rights law.

Dwyer Loughran is a senior from Montclair, New Jersey, studying Kinesiology with a minor in Crime and Justice.  She is interested in criminal justice reform and plans on pursuing a career in history or public policy.  

Team 2: Izzie Kenhard, Zev Miklethun, Brianna Wells

Team 2 researched and produced the content for "Demanding Reform, 1978-1981," Section II of the Crackdown exhibit, and the accompanying section of the "Crackdown: Police Violence and Misconduct in Detroit" ArcGIS StoryMap.

Izzie Kenhard is a junior from Northampton, England, and is majoring in History and minoring in Crime and Justice. She is interested in studying crime and law enforcement policies as well as the relationship between gender and crime.

Zev Miklethun is a sophomore from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is majoring in History with a minor in Spanish. He is interested in pursuing a career in history and enjoys studying social movements and criminal justice issues.

Brianna Wells is a senior from Lansing, Michigan, majoring in Public Policy and minoring in Gender & Health. She is committed to investigating and publicizing histories of civil liberties and injustice as well as understanding how these histories can inform public policy. After graduation, Brianna plans to explore various ways of advocating for the social issues that she is passionate about before returning to school to pursue a law degree or a PhD in History.

Team 3: Daniel Bramhall, Sarah Payne, Anya Satyawadi

Team 3 researched and produced the content for "Juvenile Injustice, 1982-1985," Section III of the Crackdown exhibit, and the accompanying section of the "Crackdown: Police Violence and Misconduct in Detroit" ArcGIS StoryMap.

Daniel Bramhall is a senior from Redondo Beach, California, and is majoring in Political Science and History. He plans to pursue a career in public policy or government and is interested in the policy areas of the judiciary, government oversight, and foreign affairs.

Sarah Payne is a junior studying History and Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience (BCN). She is interested in human rights, criminal justice reform and healthcare policy and reporting. She hopes to continue her work in research and news reporting after graduation. 

Anya Satyawadi is a junior from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is majoring in History and Program in the Environment. She is interested in energy policy and she is also passionate about criminal justice reform. She hopes to attend law school in the future.

Team 4: Martha Abrams, Lily Johnston, Sam Lauten

Team 4 researched and produced the content for "War on Crack, 1986-1989," Section IV of the Crackdown exhibit, and the accompanying section of the "Crackdown: Police Violence and Misconduct in Detroit" ArcGIS StoryMap.

Martha Abrams is a senior from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, studying History.  After college, she plans on working in prison reform organizing and research before attending law school. Her goal for practicing law is to represent detainees in immigration detention centers.

Lily Johnston is a junior from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and is majoring in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience and minoring in History of Law and Policy. She is interested in studying the intersections of history and public health and plans to pursue a career in the field of health policy.

Sam Lauten is a junior from Boston, MA. She is majoring in English with a minor in History. She is passionate about prisoners’ rights advocacy and plans to attend law school after graduation.

Team 5: Annie O'Connor, Bernie Velasquez, Isabella Young

Team 5 researched and produced the content for "Repercussions, 1990-1993," Section V of the Crackdown exhibit, and the accompanying section of the "Crackdown: Police Violence and Misconduct in Detroit" ArcGIS StoryMap.

Annie O’Connor is a senior from Bethesda, Maryland, majoring in Political Science and Economics and minoring in the History of Law and Policy.  She is passionate about criminal justice reform and hopes to pursue a career in this field. She will start law school in 2020.

Bernie Velasquez is a second-year student from Detroit, Michigan. He is majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Community Action and Social Change. Bernie is passionate about social justice and once he graduates, plans to work with software companies that also empower underrepresented communities.

Isabella Young is a second-year student from Atlanta, Georgia, studying History with a focus on criminal justice policies and incarceration in the 20th century to the present day. She plans to attend law school after she graduates.

Admin Team: Nicole Navarro and Matthew Lassiter

Nicole Navarro, the editor and contributor to the "Crackdown: Mapping Police Violence and Misconduct" ArcGIS StoryMaps, is a Ph.D. Student in History and the Graduate Supervisor of the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab. Nicole’s dissertation research focuses on the urban and political history of policing, education, and housing in late-20th century Washington, D.C. through a comparative multiracial lens. She also worked as the lab supervisor and mapping consultant for the first Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab course in Fall 2018, for the exhibit “Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence, Crime Politics, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era,” covering the 1957-1973 period.

Matt Lassiter, editor of Crackdown, is Professor of History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan and Director of the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab. He is a scholar of the twentieth-century United States with a research and teaching focus on political history, urban/suburban studies, racial and social inequality, and the history of policing and the carceral state. Professor Lassiter is also on the steering committee of the U-M Carceral State Project and the co-PI of its Documenting Criminalization and Confinement research initiative. He has led undergraduate teams in the creation of seven book-length digital exhibits, including the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab projects “Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence, Crime Politics, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era”  (1957-1973) and “Crackdown: Policing Detroit through the War on Crime, Drugs, and Youth” (1974-1993).

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