Entering its seventh year, Cal State San Bernardino’s Conversations on Race and Policing series will begin the 2026-27 academic year by examining incarceration, labor and citizenship in Puerto Rico.
Caroline Parker, a University College London anthropologist and author of “Carceral Citizens: Labour and Confinement in Puerto Rico,” will open the new season from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9, on Zoom. The program is free and open to the public.
Parker’s appearance continues a series that emerged after the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd and the national reckoning over race, racism and systemic reform in policing that followed. Since then, more than 140 forums have brought together scholars, journalists, law enforcement officers, lawyers, activists, artists, educators, administrators and others from across the country.
“Conversations on Race and Policing is every bit as relevant and important today as it was when it started in the wake of the murder of George Floyd,” said organizing team member Mike German, a former FBI special agent and former Brennan Center fellow.
Stan Futch, president of the Westside Action Group and a retired Riverside Fire Department employee, said the series remains an important public resource.
“After George Floyd’s murder, the Conversations on Race and Policing series has been informative in so many ways and continues to be a valuable forum for all who tune in,” Futch said.
Published by the University of Chicago Press in 2025, “Carceral Citizens” offers an ethnographic examination of therapeutic communities in Puerto Rico and the lives of criminalized men who find alternative forms of belonging, livelihood and citizenship within the restrictions of the carceral state.
The therapeutic communities Parker studied operate as nonprofit reeducation and recovery centers for mostly male drug offenders who complete their sentences through manual labor and prayer. Some graduates remain at the centers after completing their terms, serving as volunteers or low-wage peer counselors.
Through their participation in the centers’ daily operations, Parker found that the men developed meaningful ways of living in the shadow of prison. Set against Puerto Rico’s colonial history, the book examines the intersections of confinement, labor, rehabilitation, imperialism and self-help, with findings extending across Latin America.
“Carceral Citizens” was shortlisted for the Society for Humanistic Anthropology’s Edie Turner First Book Prize in Ethnographic Writing and received an honorable mention.
Parker is a lecturer in anthropology of professional practice, deputy director of the Social Data Institute and founder of Learning in Prison at University College London.
The organizing team for Conversations on Race and Policing, also known as CoRP, include German, Futch, Amber Broaden, Robie Madrigal, Jeremy Murray, Matt Patino and Mary Texeira, representing CSUSB and collaborating community and educational organizations.
Recordings of previous programs are available through the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive. Podcast versions can also be found on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and iHeart podcasts.
For more information, visit the Conversations on Race and Policing webpage or contact Robie Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Jeremy Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.