Great news! In April I successfully defended my dissertation Captives of a New Alcatraz, the New York City Department of Correction from 1954 to 1990. In it I draw from extensive archival material to provide a political-economic account of how it came to be that there are so many awful jails on a tiny island in the East River.
Today I received a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center.
Next month I will relocate to Chicago to become an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Governors State University.
I told my students at BMCC to forget what I've been teaching them all semester; the American Dream is in fact alive and well. To my great satisfaction, they booed and called me a sellout.
The future is bright!