Ruth Wilson Gilmore facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
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Gilmore in 2012
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| Born | April 2, 1950 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
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| Education | Rutgers University, New Brunswick (PhD) |
| Occupation | scholar, professor |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | CUNY Graduate Center, University of Southern California |
| Thesis | From Military Keynesianism to Post-Keynesian Militarism: Finance Capital, Land, Labor, and Opposition in the Rising California Prison State (1998) |
| Doctoral advisor | Neil Smith |
Ruth Wilson Gilmore (born April 2, 1950) is an important scholar and professor. She believes in ending prisons as we know them, a movement called prison abolition. She is a professor of geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She also directs the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics there. Many people say she created "carceral geography." This is a field that studies how prisons and jails are connected to places, money, and society. In 2020, she won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Geographers.
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Early Life and Learning
Ruth Wilson was born on April 2, 1950, in New Haven, Connecticut. Her family had a history of working for change. Her grandfather helped start the first union for workers at Yale University. Her father, Courtland Seymour Wilson, was a tool-and-die maker. He was also active in his workers' union. Later, he worked at Yale Medical School and Yale-New Haven Hospital.
In 1960, Ruth went to a private school in New Haven. She was one of the few students from a working-class family. She was also the first, and often only, African American student there.
In 1968, she started college at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. There, she became involved in student activism. In 1969, Ruth and other students protested at the school's admissions office. They wanted the school to accept more Black students. After a difficult time, Ruth left Swarthmore. She went back home to New Haven. She then studied at Yale, where she earned a bachelor's degree in drama.
Her Work and Ideas
Ruth Gilmore earned her PhD in 1998 from Rutgers University. She studied economic geography and social theory. After her PhD, she became a professor at University of California, Berkeley. This is where she developed her idea of "carceral geography."
Understanding Carceral Geography
Carceral geography looks at how prisons, jails, and policing are connected to the land, natural resources, and the economy. It studies how these systems control people in different places. Scholars who study this area are part of the Carceral Geography Working Group. Ruth Gilmore gave a main speech at a big conference for carceral geography in the UK in 2017.
Working for Social Justice
Gilmore has helped start many groups that work for social justice. She co-founded the California Prison Moratorium Project. In 1998, she helped start Critical Resistance with Angela Davis. In 2003, she co-founded Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB). This group works to stop building more jails and prisons. She is still on its board today.
Gilmore is a leading expert and speaker on many topics. These include prisons, reducing the number of people in prison (called decarceration), and how race and money are connected (called racial capitalism). She wrote a book called Golden Gulag. This book won an award in 2008. She has also written for many academic journals and books.
Awards and Recognition
Ruth Wilson Gilmore has received many awards for her important work.
- In 2011, she was a main speaker at the National Women's Studies Association conference.
- In 2012, she won the Angela Y. Davis prize for Public Scholarship. This award honors scholars who use their knowledge to help the public and address unfairness.
- In 2014, she received the Harold M. Rose Award for Anti-Racism Research and Practice.
- In 2017, she earned the Richard A. Yarborough Award. This award recognizes excellent teaching and guiding students.
- In 2020, Prospect magazine named her the seventh-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era. The magazine said her ideas about carceral geography have helped change how people think about crime. They noted her ideas are very important as problems with the US justice system become clear.
- A documentary film by Antipode (journal) featured Gilmore. It explored her key ideas like geography, racial capitalism, and the prison industrial complex.
- In 2021, Gilmore was chosen as a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- In 2023, an artist named Jess X. Snow painted a mural in her honor. It is on the outside of a bookstore in New Haven, Connecticut.
See also
In Spanish: Ruth Wilson Gilmore para niños
