USC.edu

Jackie Wang

Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity
Pronouns She / Her / Hers Email jwang196@usc.edu

Education

  • Ph.D. African and African American Studies, Harvard University, 2020
  • M.A. African and African American Studies, Harvard University, 2018
  • B.A. Liberal Arts, New College of Florida, 2010

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    Jackie Wang is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. She is the author of Carceral Capitalism (2018), a book on the racial, economic, political, legal, and technological dimensions of the U.S. carceral state. Her forthcoming book manuscript, tentatively titled Vectors of Control, examines how, during the postwar period, calls to reform the U.S. criminal legal system catalyzed experimentation in the realm of criminal procedure and led to the development of new technologies of control. Rather than focusing exclusively on the role of the state in pursuing the policy path now known as ‘mass incarceration,’ her recent research looks at the role of reformers, nonprofits, the Cold War university, and financiers in shaping the development of the carceral state.

    Prior to joining the faculty at USC she was an Assistant Professor at The New School.

    Research Keywords

    Political Economy of Prisons and Police, Critical Carceral Studies, Racial Capitalism, Surveillance Studies, Histories of the Black Radical Tradition, Capitalism Studies, Sound Studies, Poetry and Poetics, Psychoanalysis

  • Book

    • Wang, J., Watkins Fisher, A., Lindtner, S., Chaar-Lopez, I., Salman, C., Wark, M., Vora, K., Adair, C., Nakamura, L., Lin, C., Kamil, M. (2020). Technoprecarious. London, U.K.: Goldsmiths Press.
    • Wang, J. (2018). Carceral Capitalism. Pasadena CA: Semiotext(e) Press.
    • Poetry, The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void, Nightboat Books. (National Book Award Finalist in Poetry), 2021-2022
    • National Book Award Finalist, 2021-2022
    • Fellow, Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies, New School for Social Research, 2020-2021
    • Arleen Carlson and Edna Nelson Graduate Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 2019-2020
    • Film Study Center Fellow, Harvard University, 2018-2019
    • Warren Center Dissertation Fellowship, Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard University, 2018-2019
    • Weatherhead Dissertation Fellowship, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 2018-2019
    • Pforzheimer Fellow, Black Feminism Project, Angela Davis Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 2017-2018
    • Ellis Wright Award, 2012-2013
    • First Place, The Keith Wilson/Joe Somoza Poetry Prize, judged by poet John Chavez, 2012-2013
    • Kundiman Poetry Fellow, 2011-2012
    • John Ringling Towers Fund, Literary Arts Award, 2010-2011
    • Poet-in-Residence, Hermitage Artist Retreat, 2010-2011
    • Bright Futures Florida Academic Scholars Award, 08/2006 – 05/2010
    • Margaret L. Bates Award for Research in Gender Studies, 2008-2009
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