Michael Dean

Biography

My research centers around the labor history of California’s prison system. From prison guards to convict labor to free workers, my work focuses on the various ways in which people’s working lives shaped and were shaped by the trajectory of the various carceral booms that have taken place in California.  I seek to uncover stories that explain how and why California embarked on the largest prison expansion project in history, what the social and human consequences of that development have been, and also the myriad alternatives that have been imagined, possibilities foreclosed, and paths not taken.