Michelle Jones is a second-year doctoral student in the American Studies program at New York University. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Ball State University. Incarcerated for twenty years, Michelle made the most of the academic platform given to publish and present her research findings on the history of Indiana’s women’s prison and dispel notions of about the reach and intellectual capacity of justice-involved women. Michelle’s advocacy extends beyond the classroom. She is currently board chair of Constructing Our Future, a reentry alternative for women, created by incarcerated women in Indiana. She is a 2017-18 Beyond the Bars fellow, a 2017-18 Research Fellow at Harvard University, and a 2018-19 Ford Foundation Bearing Witness Fellow with Art for Justice. Michelle is also an artist and is interested in finding ways to funnel her research pursuits into theater and dance.
Michelle Jones
