Biography

Keesha M. Middlemass, Ph.D., is a (full) Professor in the Department of Political Science at Howard University. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in public policy, politics and punishment, and American Politics.

Middlemass' research focuses on the intersection of race, public policy, institutions, and how policies impact disadvantaged individuals and communities, particularly those who are justice impacted. Using mixed methods and interdisciplinary frameworks, including ethnography, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and archival research, she combines first person narratives with analyses of politics and policies to explore who benefits and who is burdened by a range of public policies. Middlemass focuses specifically on questions about the politics of punishment, racial justice, and the lived experiences of formerly incarcerated adults; with her multi-layered approach and analyses, she proposes policy alternatives to reduce the social, economic, and political harms caused by policies. 

In her award-winning book, Convicted & Condemned: The Politics and Policies of Prisoner Reentry (NYU Press, 2017), she makes a significant contribution to the literature by applying social disability theory to prisoner reentry, the politics of punishment, and the resulting policies that are produced. Her in-depth analysis of interview and survey data, as well as ethnography, she showcases the challenges men and women encounter when reentering society. Middlemass argues that many public policies that deny adults access to social programs and employment opportunities create perverted incentives for those attempting to reenter society successfully. Currently, Middlemass is the principal investigator (PI) of a three-year grant funded study examining clean slate laws and prisoner reentry in Virginia.

In a second line of research, Middlemass and her colleagues examine food insecurity, mental health, eating disorders, and SNAP benefit useage in socially and politically disadvantaged communities. Using psychological tools and assessments, the interdisciplinary team examines the intersections of mental and physical health, economic status, and social well-being, including food insecurity. This line of research explores the social impediments and psychological well-being that marginalized families and individuals encounter due to poverty. A significant finding of this body of work challenges the “traditional” notion of who is likely to develop an eating disorder; they found the notion that only middle-class and higher income heterosexual white women and girls experience eating disorders is incorrect. Instead, they argue and show that racially and economically diverse groups also experience disordered eating. The work produced and published by the research team led to a major change in the direction of the eating disorder sub-discipline of psychology.

Middlemass has written or co-edited three books and authored and co-authored dozens of peer reviewed articles published in Punishment & Society, Aggressive Behavior, The Prison Journal, Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Feminist Formations, Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, and Public Health Nutrition. She is also the author or co-author of several peer-reviewed chapters published in university press books. 

Middlemass is a member of the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network (RDCJN), a former Fellow at the Brookings Institution, former Andrew Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow on Race, Crime and Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City, and is a former American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow. While at Brookings, Middlemass published blogs about the intersection of politics and policy, and contributed to the launch of a new series, Uprooted: Rediscover-ing American History. Uprooted examines the political, social, and economic contributions of racially marginalized individuals and groups who have shaped America’s institutions, policies, and politics to ensure that the past is not erased and that the national story about fighting for racial equity and social justice is kept alive in today’s political environment.

Middlemass earned her M.A. (American Politics) and Ph.D. (Public Policy, American Politics & Public Administration) from The School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Georgia.