Opening Panel Discussion
Moderated by Dr. Michael B. Mitchell with Tracy Thompson and Jess Abolafia.
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
5:00-6:00, reception to follow
AIMM 102
Free and open to the public.
Join the TCNJ Art Gallery for a discussion with three panelists reflecting on the ideas and issues raised by The Usual Suspects exhibition. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Michael B. Mitchell (Assistant Professor, African American Studies and Criminology). Dr. Mitchell will be joined by Tracy Thompson (Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at New Jersey Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor), and Jess Abolafia (TCNJ graduate student, writer, and advocate). A reception will follow, and the gallery will be open for viewing.
This panel discussion will contextualize the indifference toward the criminalization, violence, and premature death of Black bodies in the United States. The panelists will discuss “race as a carceral terrain (Williams, 2019)” and how Black bodies are disproportionately selected for punishment in various settings, including criminal legal institutions, schools, and society at-large.
Dr. Michael B. Mitchell is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Criminology at TCNJ, where he teaches courses on race, crime, and justice, policing, social justice, and the school-to-prison pipeline, to name a few. He identifies as a critical criminologist who challenges students and the public alike to see and understand the racist, classist, and sexist underpinnings of the American criminal legal system. Dr. Mitchell holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Administration of Justice from Texas Southern University, and a M.A. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Mitchell has both public-facing and refereed publications on topics of social justice, prisons, returning citizens, and policing. He is the faculty advisor for the TCNJ chapter of Students for Prison Education and Reform and serves as a volunteer and board member for non-profit organizations and state agencies throughout New Jersey.
AAG Tracy M. Thompson is New Jersey’s Insurance Fraud Prosecutor. She supervises a staff of nearly 100 who assess, investigate and prosecute all types of insurance fraud. For 30 years, Thompson has proudly served New Jersey, beginning as an Assistant Prosecutor in the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, then as a Deputy Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General in the Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
Thompson is a faculty member for the Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute and the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute. She is also an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey. Thompson currently serves as a Trustee for both the Capital Area YMCA and the New Jersey State Bar Association. She received her B.A. in African-American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law.
Jessica Abolafia received her B.A. in English and African-American Studies from the College of New Jersey, and is a graduate student working towards her M.A. degree in English at the College. Abolafia serves as the President of TCNJ’s chapter of Students for Prison Education and Reform (SPEAR) and the Vice President of Sigma Tau Delta. She also works as a tutor in the Tutoring Center, and is the Graduate Research Assistant for the English Department. Additionally, Abolafia has instructed a writing-workshop at the only women’s maximum-security prison in New Jersey, and is currently working on several book projects with system-impacted individuals, including co-editing the memoir of an incarcerated woman sentenced to life in prison as a teenager, and compiling the paintings, drawings, and poems of an artist who found liberation through his work while on death row. Abolafia’s primary research interests include mass incarceration, race and ethnicity, and the emancipatory power of literacy.
For directions and parking information, please visit https://tcnj.edu/about/campus-info/.
Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects is organized by LSU Museum of Art. The project, which includes a fully illustrated catalogue, is a collaboration between the LSU College of Art + Design, the LSU School of Art and LSU Museum of Art. Support for this exhibition is provided by The Winifred and Kevin P. Reilly Jr. Fund with additional support from LSU Museum of Art Annual Exhibition Fund donors. At TCNJ, this program is made possible, in part, by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Commissioners and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.