Heather Ann Thompson Lecture

May 11 2023 | 5:00pm to 8:00pm

Unmaking (and Remaking) the Motor City in the Age of Mass Incarceration

Over the last five decades the City of Detroit has felt the crisis of mass incarceration first-hand and most acutely. Historian Heather Ann Thompson will discuss the origins of this crisis nationally and locally, its lived impact on city residents as well as on the city itself. From this history, she argues, we can better understand not only why this is the civil and human rights crisis of the 21st century, but what it will take to undo it.

This evening event is free for members and free with museum admission for non-members. 

5-6 p.m. Prior to the program, view the Humanize the Numbers exhibition on display now in the Community Gallery 

6-8 p.m. Lecture in the Booth Auditorium  

Dr. Heather Ann Thompson is a native Detroiter and historian on faculty of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in the departments of Afro-American and African Studies, History, and the Residential College.

Thompson has published numerous books and has written extensively on the history of policing, mass incarceration and the current criminal justice system for The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, The Atlantic, Salon, Dissent, NBC, New Labor Forum, The Daily Beast, and The Huffington Post, as well as for the top publications in her field.

Free for members and free with museum admission for non-members.

Register now