Date of Award

Fall 1-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Public Health

First Advisor

Miller, Alice

Abstract

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary exploration of the links between public health and carceral systems, the connections between academic scholarship and advocacy, and the role of public health research in social justice movements. This dissertation begins with in-depth interviews with academic researchers and anti-carceral organizers, as well as analyses of my own experiences taking part in protests and mutual aid work, which ground conversations on the meaning of safety and care, and the role of public health. The second chapter is a systematic literature review and synthesis where I analyze academic literature about public health and carceral systems, assessing it using the "reformist reforms/non-reformist reforms" heuristic that comes out of movements to abolish the prison industrial complex. The final chapter builds on the first two in order to present the movement public health methodology, which I demonstrate as a useful approach to producing innovative public health research that furthers the goals of social justice movements.

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