Willie Mack

Willie-mack
Courtesy, Assistant Professor of Black Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies
321 Gentry Hall
573-882-6229
Research Interests

Dr. Mack's research interests focus on race, immigration, and the carceral state in twentieth-century United States. His research takes a transnational approach to the development of the carceral state in Haiti and the U.S. during the 1970 through the 1990s. Will has had articles published with “Black Perspectives” the blog for the African Americans Intellectual History Society, the Society for U.S. Intellectual Society, and “Next Chapter,” the digital forum for the University of Chicago’s Race and Capitalism Project.  He has also won the Organization of American Historians’ 2022 John Higham Research Fellowship Award for graduate students writing doctoral dissertation in American History.

Courses Taught

BL_STU 1000 – Introduction to Black Studies

BL_STU 3977 – Black Studies Methodologies

BL_STU 4303/7303 – Black Studies in Race, Class, Gender, and U.S. Policy

BL_STU 4335/7335 – The Wire: Race, Urban Inequality, and the “Crisis” of the American City

Recent Publications

Contributor to the ACLS Mapping Inequality Project, University of Richmond, “Race and Redlining in Brooklyn, NY” (July 2022), https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=11/40.655/-74.104&city=brooklyn-ny&adview=full 

“The Success of the Valley Road Community: A History of Nassau County’s African American and Indigenous People,” Preservation Long Island Blog, Preservation Long Island (May 2022), https://preservationlongisland.org/the-success-of-the-valley-road-community-a-hidden-history-of-nassau-countys-african-american-and-indigenous-people/

“Haiti and U.S. Policing,” Black Perspectives Blog, African American Intellectual History Society (September 2021), https://www.aaihs.ord/haiti-and-us-policing

“‘Traitors in Our Midst’: Race, Corrections, and the 1970 Tombs Uprising,” Gotham: Blog for Scholars of New York City History, Gotham Center for New York City History (Oct. 1, 2020), https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/traitors-in-our-midst-race-corrections-and-the-1970-tombs-uprising

 “A Time for Change: Power and Policing in New York City,” Black Perspectives Blog, African American Intellectual History Society (March 2020), https://www.aaihs.org/a-time-for-change-power-and-policing-in-new-york-city/

“On the Building of Long Island,” Next Chapter Digital Forum, Race & Capitalism Project (Feb. 2020), https://www.raceandcapitalism.com/next-chapter/on-the-building-of-long-island

“Race and Policing: The Contradiction of Liberal Multi-Culturalism,” U.S. Intellectual Historical Blog, Society for U.S. Intellectual History (Oct. 2019), https://s-usih.org/2019/10/race-and-policing-the-contradiction-of-liberal-multi-culturalism/

“Walter Rodney: A Brief Examination,” The Griots Republic (Spring 2018),  http://www.griotsrepublic.com/global-black-history-walter-rodney-travel-bans-didnt-silence-movement/

“The African American Experience during World War I,” Veterans Employment Services Inc.: Embracing History (Fall 2017), http://vetsincusa.org.