Advisory Board
Richard Rivera
Since his release in 2019, Richard has dedicated himself to social justice issues involving formerly incarcerated and court-involved individuals, homeless and economically insecure populations, and those suffering from mental illnesses and substance dependency. Richard works for two nonprofits dedicated to raising awareness of social and economic inequalities and advocating for systemic and structural changes, including the defunding demilitarization, and de-carceration of the police/disciplinary state He is doing an ethnographic study in Tompkins County, NY on issues of mental health, substance dependency and homelessness, and was awarded a grant by Engage Cornell.
Joseph Margulies
Joseph Margulies is a Professor of Law and Government at Cornell University. He is the author of What Changed When Everything Changed: 9/11 and the Making of National Identity (Yale 2013), and is also counsel for Abu Zubaydah, for whose interrogation the torture memo was written. Margulies self identifies as a litigator and a student of the American criminal justice system, and writes about its cruelty and inequity. Other times, he is a student of neighborhood well-being, and asks what it takes to create and sustain healthy, vibrant and safe neighborhoods. And on other occasions, he is a civil rights attorney and critic of the national security state. For many years, he has defended people caught up in the excesses of the so-called war on terror. He was Counsel of Record in Rasul v. Bush (2004), involving detentions at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station, and in Geren v. Omar & Munaf v. Geren (2008), involving detentions at Camp Cropper in Iraq.
Mary Fainsod Katzenstein
Mary Fainsod Katzenstein is the Stephen and Evalyn Professor of American Studies, Emerita at Cornell Univeristy. Her most recent work addresses the newly developing practice of "taxing the poor" as an intended or unwitting offshoot of particular policies (levying fines and fees) associated with mass incarceration. Her earlier work has focused on political activism and gender in the United States and cross-nationally and on ethnic activism in India.