Monica C. Bell
@monicacbell.bsky.social
Law prof & sociologist at Yale. I write about poverty, race, place, gender, policing, and justice, and I use qualitative and humanistic methods.
In Carolina in my mind. 🏳️🌈✊🏿
In Carolina in my mind. 🏳️🌈✊🏿
Beyond excited to be in community with these scholars and artists next year (and to finally finish this book manuscript)!
Learn about the bold thinkers we'll welcome in the fall! www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ide...
Harvard Radcliffe Institute Announces 2025–2026 Fellows | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University
www.radcliffe.harvard.edu
May 16, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Beyond excited to be in community with these scholars and artists next year (and to finally finish this book manuscript)!
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
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...
January 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM
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 🙌🏿
January 23, 2025 at 12:54 PM
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 🙌🏿
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
[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-...
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-...
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.
www.justsecurity.org
December 24, 2024 at 5:23 PM
[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-...
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-...
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
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
Tablets are quickly becoming indispensable behind bars. They give access to books, music, games, etc.
But since they haven't been under scrutiny, they've become another way for telecom companies to squeeze money from incarcerated people & their loved ones
www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/09...
But since they haven't been under scrutiny, they've become another way for telecom companies to squeeze money from incarcerated people & their loved ones
www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/09...
Prison Banned Books Week: Books give incarcerated people access to the world, but tablets are often used to wall them off
Instead of taking advantage of their possibilities, the companies that got rich off prison phone calls offer limited book selections on tablets, as part of ...
www.prisonpolicy.org
December 10, 2024 at 9:49 PM
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
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
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.
December 5, 2024 at 10:04 PM
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.
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?
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?
December 6, 2024 at 3:05 PM
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?
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?
December 6, 2024 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
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:
December 2, 2024 at 6:30 PM
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
#wicked #holdingspace #defyinggravity
November 29, 2024 at 10:49 PM
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
#wicked #holdingspace #defyinggravity
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
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
November 27, 2024 at 1:31 PM
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
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
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...
November 25, 2024 at 3:25 PM
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...
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
Extremely excited to sit with this paper!
My new article with Caitlyn Collins and Shamus Khan on constructing cases, generating claims, and generalizing conceptually in qualitative research is out in the @AnnualReviews. A big thank you to the qualitative scholars who inspired and informed our work! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
“Which Cases Do I Need?” Constructing Cases and Observations in Qualitative Research | Annual Reviews
This methodological review starts one step before Small's classic account of how many cases a scholar needs. We ask, “Which cases do I need?” We argue that a core feature of most qualitative rese...
www.annualreviews.org
November 25, 2024 at 5:39 PM
Extremely excited to sit with this paper!
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
Academics in their forties
October 25, 2024 at 2:22 PM
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
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
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
STS researcher: The cup is an affordance
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
STS researcher: The cup is an affordance
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Cosmologist: The cup is dusty or full of gravitational waves
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Cosmologist: The cup is dusty or full of gravitational waves
November 24, 2024 at 2:25 PM
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
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
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
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.
Lately, I’ve been listening to her read “Beloved” on my walks to campus.
November 23, 2024 at 11:47 AM
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.
Lately, I’ve been listening to her read “Beloved” on my walks to campus.
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
We will survive these crises by leaning and loving on each other #photography #streetphotography
November 22, 2024 at 1:00 PM
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
We will survive these crises by leaning and loving on each other #photography #streetphotography
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
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
November 21, 2024 at 7:20 PM
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
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
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
I believe in that too, @nikitagill.bsky.social.
November 19, 2024 at 3:47 AM
I believe in that too, @nikitagill.bsky.social.
Fantastic news! Embry and I do not always agree—indeed, during law school he was one of my favorite sparring partners—but he is a fair-minded person and delightful friend. I am utterly thrilled to see him on the Eleventh Circuit.
NEWS: Embry Kidd is confirmed to the Eleventh Circuit.
Born in 1983, Kidd will be replacing Charles Wilson, the final active Clinton appointee on the court. Wilson was born in 1954 and turned 70 last month.
Born in 1983, Kidd will be replacing Charles Wilson, the final active Clinton appointee on the court. Wilson was born in 1954 and turned 70 last month.
November 19, 2024 at 1:01 AM
Fantastic news! Embry and I do not always agree—indeed, during law school he was one of my favorite sparring partners—but he is a fair-minded person and delightful friend. I am utterly thrilled to see him on the Eleventh Circuit.
Reposted by Monica C. Bell
A small but non-trivial hill I am willing to die on:
The abstract of every empirical paper should include the core empirical findings--numbers included!
Not "we find police reduce crime," but "we find that a 1% increase in police yields a 0.4% drop in crime."
The abstract isn't clickbait.
The abstract of every empirical paper should include the core empirical findings--numbers included!
Not "we find police reduce crime," but "we find that a 1% increase in police yields a 0.4% drop in crime."
The abstract isn't clickbait.
November 18, 2024 at 9:52 PM
A small but non-trivial hill I am willing to die on:
The abstract of every empirical paper should include the core empirical findings--numbers included!
Not "we find police reduce crime," but "we find that a 1% increase in police yields a 0.4% drop in crime."
The abstract isn't clickbait.
The abstract of every empirical paper should include the core empirical findings--numbers included!
Not "we find police reduce crime," but "we find that a 1% increase in police yields a 0.4% drop in crime."
The abstract isn't clickbait.
Excited to finally be here on Bluesky! The other app had become so toxic that I pretty much stopped posting and engaging there altogether. I look forward to hopefully changing that here.
First post is this interesting image I shot in Brooklyn yesterday
First post is this interesting image I shot in Brooklyn yesterday
November 18, 2024 at 7:47 PM
Excited to finally be here on Bluesky! The other app had become so toxic that I pretty much stopped posting and engaging there altogether. I look forward to hopefully changing that here.
First post is this interesting image I shot in Brooklyn yesterday
First post is this interesting image I shot in Brooklyn yesterday