Thomas Dichter

I am a Lecturer in the History & Literature program, where I teach courses and advise undergraduates in the American Studies and Ethnic Studies fields. I have also taught in the Harvard English department and the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College. I received my bachelor's degree in English from Harvard in 2008 and my PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015. My research and teaching focus on incarceration, race, and state-sanctioned violence in the United States since the nineteenth century. I have published articles in J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, American Literature, and Law, Culture, and the Humanities. Prior to moving to Boston, I was a member of Decarcerate PA, a grassroots coalition working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania.

In spring 2023, I co-organized the symposium “When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: 50 Years Later,” at the Mahindra Humanities Center. (Click here for the symposium program, and here for videos of the panel.)

Project: Self-Determination in the Prison City: Archiving the Walpole Takeover of 1973