Book Talk with Venezia Michalsen: Intersectional Feminist Criminology
Critical criminology scholars Venezia (Venice) Michalsen and Janet Garcia-Hallett will join us for a dialogue about Venice’s new release, which offers a critique of the discipline and a reimagining of its futures through an intersectional feminist lens...
More about the book:
This pathbreaking book brings to bear a sweeping body of contemporary intersectional feminist work to disrupt the entire discipline of criminology. Women have been largely absent from criminological theory, research, policy, and practice. This fresh, conversational book critiques the field's dominant theories by analyzing gendered patterns of perpetration and victimization and challenging traditional criminological perspectives on characteristics such as race and queerness. Designed as a rebuttal to conventional criminology textbooks, the book mirrors standard course content through an intersectional feminist lens, offering students a valuable opportunity to question the field's underpinnings and forge a new path to understanding the true meaning of justice.
Organized in fourteen chapters, each chapter includes accessible learning aids for students:
- A review of how traditional criminology textbooks cover the topic
- Critical perspectives on the topic
- Critical thinking breaks
Intersectional Feminist Criminology is a timely intervention and companion to the curriculum that helps to imagine a new world and ultimately lays out a clear abolitionist vision as an alternative to the American criminal legal system.
More about Venezia:
Dr. Venezia Michalsen (Venice) is a Criminologist with a career spanning applied settings, such as with the Women's Prison Association in New York City, and academia as faculty at Montclair State University for 15 years and now at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) since 2022. Venice focuses on linking academics with social justice, such as being a part of the team that made Connecticut the first state in the U.S. to make prison phone calls free, and as co-founder of the Hamden Special Education PTA, which she is now working to mesh with SCSU's Critical Disabilities Minor. Her second book, "Intersectional Feminist Criminology: A Critical Companion to Theory and Research" was published this summer 2025 with UCPress. Venice is the Graduate Coordinator for the Sociology M.S. Program and is Co-Chair of the University-wide Graduate Council. After 20 years in NYC, Venice moved back to her hometown of Hamden in 2014, where she lives with her husband David, and their teenaged son, Bowie.
More about Janet:
Dr. Janet Garcia-Hallett is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice in the University of New Haven. Her research is focused on social justice issues for marginalized populations – particularly, the impact of incarceration on communities of color and the obstacles women face before, during, and after incarceration. Her award-winning book, Invisible Mothers: Unseen Yet Hypervisible after Incarceration, explores how mothers of color navigate motherhood and life post-incarceration at the intersection of gender, motherhood, racial-ethnic background, and criminal record. It has received numerous recognitions, including the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) 2024 Outstanding Book Award and the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance 2023 Ida B. Wells-Barnett Distinguished Book Award. In collaboration with other research scholars, Dr. Garcia-Hallett has partaken in multi-year community-engaged research projects to improve prison conditions for those working and living in carceral spaces, and to promote the overall well-being of prison staff and residents.