In Conversation with Dr. Julian Go (U. of Chicago, Sociology), author of "Policing Empires Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the US" (Oxford, 2023)

Dr. Julian Go is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago where he is also a Faculty Affiliate in the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture and The Committee on International Relation. He is also a Fellow of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory and former President of the Social Science History Association.

His recent book, Policing Empires Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the US (Oxford U. Press, 2023), "offers the first sustained historical and comparative study of police militarization in the countries where civil policing was born: Britain and the United States."

From the publisher's website: "The police response to protests erupting on America's streets in recent years has made the militarization of policing painfully transparent. Yet, properly demilitarizing the police requires a deeper understanding of its historical development, causes, and social logics. Policing Empires offers a postcolonial historical sociology of police militarization in Britain and the United States to aid that effort. Julian Go tracks when, why, and how British and US police departments have adopted military tactics, tools, and technologies for domestic use. Go reveals that police militarization has occurred since the very founding of modern policing in the nineteenth century into the present, and that it is an effect of the "imperial boomerang." Policing Empires thereby unlocks the dirty secret of police militarization: Police have brought imperial practices home to militarize themselves in response to perceived racialized threats from minority and immigrant populations."

Winner, 2024 Ida B. Wells-Barnett Distinguished Book Award for best book in Crime, Law and Deviance, American Sociological Association Section on Crime, Law and Deviance
Co-Winner, Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Book) Award for the Political Sociology Section, American Sociological Association
Honorable Mention, 2024 Best Book Prize, Global and Transnational Sociology, American Sociological Association
Honorable Mention, 2024 Barrington Moore Best Book Prize, Comparative-Historical Sociology Section, American Sociological Association

"Policing Empires painstakingly reveals the colonial roots of modern policing across the globe. Dismissing simple narratives of police militarization or individualized racism, Go shows how racialized fear of crime and the mobilization of counterinsurgency practices have been the organizing logics of the institution of policing." ― Alex S. Vitale, author of The End of Policing

"Policing Empires is an important contribution to the rapidly growing field of police history." ― Jonathon Booth , Criminal Law & Criminal Justice Books

"Go provides invaluable depth and specificity to a field that is most commonly surveyed from the vantage-point of grand strategy and macroeconomics. Reading this book as militarized American police forces are mobilized to crack down on students protesting the mass slaughter of Palestinians on university campuses further heightens its clear and immediate relevance." ― Stuart Rollo, International Affairs

Thanks to Pfau Library, Project Rebound, and the Information Technology Services team for making this event possible! Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, Psychology), Stan Futch (President, Westside Action Group), Michael German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Dr. Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College Adjunct Faculty), Dr. Mary Texeira (CSUSB Sociology). Click here to view previous panels in the Conversations on Race and Policing series (link). Thanks to Project Rebound and the CSUSB Pfau Library for their support of this event! Thanks to Thinh Ly, Parker Brooks, and the Information Technology Services team!

Series Homepage Back to Events