Jessica Bird
CLJ Faculty, Director of Graduate Studies
Assistant Professor
Criminology, Law, and Justice
Contact
Building & Room:
3102A BSB
Address:
1007 W Harrison St.
Office Phone:
Email:
About
Dr. Bird’s research is focused broadly on moral-philosophical approaches to institutions, cultures, and practices of justice. In particular, she is interested in the relationship between moral emotions and in/justice — emotions such as anger, shame, disgust, hope, love, honor, mercy, and vengeance.
In more applied work, Dr. Bird is involved in multiple advocacy, policy, and research projects that center the experiences and (blocked) opportunities of people with criminal records. She coordinates the CLJ Prison & Jail Education Project. She currently teaches in Cook County Jail and previously taught in Stateville Correctional Center. At the campus level, she is an active member of the Abolition Teaching & Learning Network, and serves on the Previous Record Review Committee. She is currently conducting research on a project titled Just Education, which explores the experiences of students with records across higher educational institutions in Illinois.
She teachers classes on theories of justice, the ethics of punishment, moral emotions, prison poetics, and criminological theory.
Dr. Bird has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Edinburgh, an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Edinburgh, an MA in Human Rights from the University of the West of England at Bristol, and a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Cardiff.