Monica C. Bell

Beyond excited to be in community with these scholars and artists next year (and to finally finish this book manuscript)!

Blurbs for Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing are in! I'm so grateful to the wonderful scholars who have written them, including this generous first blurb by Monica Bell (thanks @monicacbell.bsky.social!). The book is out in June: www.ucpress.edu/books/indefe...

It is amazing how well growing up in the Black Pentecostal tradition prepared me for these dastardly days. Some of us have been preparing for the End Times since the 1980s 🙌🏿

The Just Security 2024 Year-End Book Recommendations Just Security editors recommend books they read this year, including those that illuminated world issues and brought joy into their 2024.

[1/2] A favorite tradition, the Just Security year-end book recommendations, is here!

Our editors recommend a mix of books to learn more about some of the issues we cover, and to unwind and recharge for the year ahead.

With thanks to our readers and to ...

www.justsecurity.org/105991/just-...

In our forthcoming book, @joesoss.bsky.social and I argue that corporations routinely find ways to profit off the needs, desires, and vulnerabilities of incarcerated people & their families. Tablets are a prime example. #LegalPlunder

Yes, and for an embarrassingly long time I was sometimes going without getting reimbursed just because I couldn’t handle all the paperwork. Fortunately for my financial life, I’ve gotten better at it/gotten support to help with all the forms…

Here is a somber truth of creative life. If it goes well, people will begin to ask you for things. Each of those things, no matter how kind or flattering or genuine or even beneficial to your own career and finances as well as someone else's, will pull you from your true purpose.

It seems like it’s part of this massive effort to distract from the reality that overwhelming numbers of white Americans voted for Trump in November.

The shifts among other groups are noteworthy, I guess, but journalists should write about them in a way that doesn’t obscure the central story

I have been quite vexed by all of this post-election analysis of “shift” that doesn’t report the baseline.

Example: Couldn’t this Atlanta outcome be because white Atlantans were already relatively pro-Trump, thus there wasn’t as much *shift* as in other cities and among other groups?

Carrying a nation on our backs

#photography #streetphotography

Law and Environment This panel invites papers that explore the relationships between law, society, and the environment, broadly conceived. Potential topics may include—but are certainly not limited to—the role of law and legal actors in environmental justice movements; adaptation to climate change; ecological preservation and conservation; sustainable governance of natural resources; responding to climate effects on conditions in prisons and the built environment; planning for resilience to natural disasters; and the role of scientific experts and expertise in legal and regulatory change. We welcome submissions that analyze connections between law, society, and the environment at any scale—from local to regional, national, and global. (Session Organizer) Nate Ela, Temple University; Jessica T. Simes, Boston University

Together with @jtsimes.bsky.social I'm organizing a panel on "Law and Environment" for the #Sociology of Law section at #ASA2025. Please spread the word to law-people working on environmental topics, and environment-people working on legal topics! CFP in the image below:

Just got home from Thanksgiving excursions and couldn’t help attempting the Cynthia Erivo version of that iconic last riff from “Defying Gravity”… The agitated barking from my neighbor’s dog tells me about all I need to know about how that sounded 😭

#wicked #holdingspace #defyinggravity

Do you know about social science that you think criminal defense attorneys should be incorporating into their arguments? Have you written a criminal defense motion incorporating social science? If so, please help us create a national network. Upload your studies and motions to datafordefenders.org

For my first post here: come work with us! Northwestern Law is hiring for our VAP program in the 2025-2026 academic year. This position is a fantastic opportunity for folks planning to enter legal academia. Please reach out with any questions. careers.northwestern.edu/psp/hr857prd...

A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban. Doctors Are Avoiding D&Cs and Reaching for Riskier Miscarriage Treatments. Thirty-five-year-old Porsha Ngumezi’s case raises questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to avoid standard care even in straightforward miscarriages.

www.propublica.org/article/pors...

Extremely excited to sit with this paper!

Plus, the comparison of 2012 v. 2024 gives me pause. That was Obama v. Romney, much different candidates from Harris and Trump, not just because of messaging or policy.

The loss of a strong populist, big tent message is bad for Dems, but this stat gives a misleading impression, I think

I’m not strongly criticizing the underlying premise, but re: this finding—it’s not surprising because Republicans were already doing exceedingly well among white voters without a college degree. It’s not remarkable that Trump is making larger “gains” among these groups

guy pointing at himself in the mirror meme, saying "you are still an early career scholar"

Academics in their forties

Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Sociologist of law: What’s important isn’t the cup on the books, but how it is used in the real world

I agree — it sounds like there was an extreme over correction here.

I was just trying to make note of the housing-related rationale behind the policies, which at least this screenshot of the article doesn’t seem to raise!

I’m not saying I support these policies because I don’t know enough in this specific context—but isn’t the goal to incentivize housing availability and affordability? I’m not sure if I’m ready to choose tourists over NYC residents (though obviously the city needs tourism, and balance is key)

By the way, #ToniMorrison recorded the audio versions for a lot of her books. And, of course, she was incandescent reader.

Lately, I’ve been listening to her read “Beloved” on my walks to campus.

Incredible piece that is 100% accurate

A sweet family photo from Herbert Von King Park in Bed-Stuy, one of my favorite places to hang out in Brooklyn

We will survive these crises by leaning and loving on each other #photography #streetphotography

Thanks, Bart!!

I’ve taken up street photography to expand my work and force myself outdoors. I love it, but I underestimated the harassment aspect

If I got paid for every time some strange man has yelled “Big Sexy!” and/or followed me muttering disgusting things, maybe I could get that Hasselblad X2D 100C

Umm, yeah Nightswimming is epic. I still listen to it regularly!

I believe in that too, @nikitagill.bsky.social.