Michelle Renee Jacobs
Associate Professor
313-577-2930
313-577-2735 (fax)
2263 FAB
Department
Michelle Renee Jacobs
Research interest(s)/area of expertise
- Social inequalities
- Race and ethnicity
- Mass incarceration and community reentry
- Qualitative methods
- Indigenous studies
- Teaching and learning
Research
My research focuses on racial inequalities and mass incarceration. I am currently working on projects about community reentry following long-term incarceration and wrongful convictions in Wayne County, MI. I am also directing WSU's Prison Education Program at Macomb Correctional Facility.
Education
Ph.D. in Sociology, Kent State University, 2012Awards and grants
Awards
- WSU Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Award, 2024
- Scholarly Achievement Award-Book, North Central Sociological Society (NCSA), 2024
- Scholarly Achievement Award-Article, North Central Sociological Society (NCSA), 2022
- WSU President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2020
- WSU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Award, 2019
Grants
- “The Detroit Reentry Photovoice Project.” ($10,000) WSU Social Sciences Research Support. 2023-2025
- “The Detroit Reentry Photovoice Project.” ($6,000) WSU Humanities Center Faculty Fellow. 2023-2024
- “Wrongful Conviction in Wayne County, MI.” ($10,000) WSU Social Justice Research Fund. 2023-2025
- "Achieving Engagement and Success for Commuter Students in Engineering” ($998,732.00); Award #1742486 NSF Division of Undergraduate Education. Principle Investigator: Jeffrey Potoff; Co-Principle Investigators: Mohson Ayoobi, Michelle Jacobs, Marcis Jansons. 2018-2023
News mentions
- “Real Pictures of Reentry” photo exhibit comes to Hamtramck
- https://today.wayne.edu/news/2024/11/13/wayne-state-brings-education-to-prisons-64924
Selected publications
- Jacobs, Michelle R. 2023. Indigenous Memory, Urban Reality: Stories of American Indian Relocation and Reclamation. New York: New York University Press
- Jacobs, Michelle R. 2022. “The Role of Living Traditions in Decolonizing Indigenous Gender in an Urban Environment.” Sociological Forum 37(1): 177-199
- Jacobs, Michelle R. 2022. “‘You Should Be Proud!’ Native-Themed Mascots and the Cultural Reproduction of White Settler Space.” Sociological Inquiry 92(2): 417-441
- Jacobs, Michelle R. 2019. “Resisting and Reifying Racialization among Urban American Indians.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 42(4): 570-588.
- *Scholarly Achievement Award winner, North Central Sociological Society (NCSA), 2022