Dr. Tamanika Ferguson
As a feminist scholar of the carceral state, I study and write about these punitive systems, as well as human rights and incarcerated women's activist history to eliminate the harms associated with these systems, thus affirming their investments in reforming and dismantling the criminal punishment system.
Welcome!
In this space, you will learn about my research, projects, and teaching
About
Getting To Know Me
I am a proud first-generation scholar and social justice educator from sunny Southern California. I earned a doctorate in Communication, Culture, and Media Studies and paired it with a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies from Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, DC. I also have a MSa in Africana Studies and Sociology and BSa degree in Africana Studies from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Like all academic scholars, I am working on my craft as a researcher, opinion leader, author, and teacher. I love ideas. I love to unpack ideas and create a body of work that will contribute to the fields of feminist and critical carceral studies and most importantly, I want my work and ideas to have a meaningful impact on the world.
Currently, I am situated at Wellesley College as a Visiting Research Scholar in Women's and Gender and Studies. My forthcoming solo authored book, Voices from The Inside: Incarcerated Women Speak, is an ethnographic case study documenting women's activist history in women’s prisons in California.
I was trained in the yoga tradition and have been a yoga and meditation practitioner for over ten years. These experiences have afforded me the opportunity to integrate meditation and mindfulness techniques into my teaching. As I continue to grow and evolve, I envision being in spaces where I can use my gifts and talents to support others. I want to be in spaces where people would feel blessed to have me in their presence.
I prioritize fun, joy, and rest. In my personal life, I enjoy off the beaten path travel, cultural immersion trips, photography 📷adventure sports, karaoke🎤dancing, bonding with family and friends and flirting with social media @wmnstudischolar (Twitter)
Projects
Current book project was supported by the American Association of University Women (AAUW),
the Organization for Research on Women and Communication (ORWAC) and the University of Maryland.
Research
The Belly of The Beast: Lessons in The Politics and Practices of Building Towards a Prison Abolition
This article draws on my dissertation research. In this article, I draw on the lens of abolition feminism, transformative justice, and intersectionality to theorize and conceptualize the advocacy, resistance, and prison activism of system impacted people in women's prisons in California, thereby contributing to both abolition studies and feminist studies. The anecdotal and narrative accounts reveal insights into how their situatedness in hierarchies of intersectional oppression fuels their personal and political engagement in social and political activism, as well as the possibilities of their structural explanations and lived experiences contributing to critical debates that intervene to shape laws and social policy (Forthcoming).
Lessons in Resistance, Activism, and Solidarity: Incarcerated Women and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners
In 2000, Charisse Shumate, a co-founding member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) and other incarcerated women in California gathered at a senate hearing to give testimony on medical and living conditions in prison. Incarcerated women’s narratives demonstrate the key role that their critical agency played in their advocacy for a humane prison system. The narratives also illustrate women’s resolve to use their voices to speak up. Women’s experiences of incarceration have long been silenced and this was part of the collective experience shared at the senate hearing. The collaborative work to document the hearings as well as women’s prison experiences and activism reflects an important response to women’s invisibility in dominant discourses of prisons and imprisonment and the marginalization that incarcerated women experience in the broader anti-carceral movement. The California Coalition for Women Prisoners, a coalition-building organization founded by women on both sides of the razor wire, is an abolitionist feminist organization founded in San Francisco, California in 1995. CCWP practices a specific brand of activism that prioritizes and supports the voices, leadership, and creativity of women and transgender people incarcerated in women’s prisons.
As a former incarcerated teen with a personal and family history with the criminal punishment systems in California, I empathize with incarcerated Black women and other women of color and deeply appreciate their agency and resistance against the carceral state, So I made it my mission to share their personal narratives with the general public by turning my dissertation research into a book. My forthcoming book, Voices from The Inside: Incarcerated Women Speak is slated to be published in Spring 2026 with the University of California Press, which is a reputable academic press with leading books in critical carceral studies and sociology. Voices from The Inside demonstrates how criminalized and incarcerated women and gender diverse persons in California operate and execute measures of empowerment and resistance for their own survival, institutional change, and prison abolition. Voices from The Inside is based on archival research thanks to the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and interviews with formerly incarcerated women in California. Building on their narratives, this book helps the general audience understand the social and political complexities of working for transformative justice while struggling to stay alive and navigate the brutality of incarceration. Ultimately, the book offers an exceptional case on the meaning of resistance communities behind bars and prison abolition in practice.
Liberatory Education
In order to change the world, you have to begin to imagine it differently, and for a lot of young people, part of seeing themselves in that narrative of social change, begins with that process of imagination -- Rogelio Lopez
PEDAGOGY, TEACHING, MENTORING
I consider the classroom a small community of intellectual engagement in which I empower, mentor, and advise students. My pedagogy and praxis is to develop and prepare students to engender equity and justice-minded worldviews, identify sociological ways of thinking, and see themselves as part of a broader community of change agents working for a more egalitarian and just society. My humanistic pedagogy is informed by my African American heritage, key life events, traveling and living abroad, engaging with different cultures, having a broad frame of reference or understanding social problems in the U.S. and in the broader diaspora, and working with a diverse student population in academic and nonacademic spaces. These disparate experiences affords me the opportunity to incorporate gender and multicultural issues in appropriate ways into my humanistic pedagogy. My courses and teaching methods empower students to engage in self-reflection about their own positionalities, strengths, and capacities as leaders, and how all of this influences their career paths. Lastly, my teaching methods empower students to re-conceptualize the world they want to see in the future and how ultimately these visions can inform real action.
Student Testimonials
I loved and cherished this class, the experiences I've had, the lessons I have learned and the endless wisdom and knowledge I will take from this course into my future experiences. Thank you so much for all the work you have put in for us. You are an incredible professor who shows utmost professionalism, care, and passion about the topics you've introduced.
~~ Riley Pegher, WGSS Major, Spring 2023
My experience in WGSS has been nothing short of impactful, enlightening, fun, and productive. I chose these words because they truly embody my experience learning about the prison system and how society operates. Professor Ferguson always came in ready to and wanting to teach but acknowledged that the material could be heavy; thus, she would have us take a deep breath and center ourselves again.
~~ Maya Francisco, Community and Justice Studies, Spring 2023
The experience of being in an active classroom, discussing contemporary topics, and leaving with being seen and heard by my professor and peers was empowering. This class challenged me to bring ideas of WGSS into my other classes looking at things from a unique perspective. Through Dr. Ferguson's support, passion, and commitment to the topic and students created a welcoming environment.
~~ Skye-Lee, Lyons, Theater, Freshman, Spring, 2023
Accomplishments
Selected Writings, Talks & Accolades
Works in Public Scholarship
Ferguson, T. (2022) “Abortion Rights Movement Must Include Incarcerated People.” https://progressive.org/op-eds/abortion-rights-include-incarcerated-people-ferguson-220720/
Ferguson, T. (2022) “Building “Feminist Jails” Ignores a Larger Problem.” https://truthout.org/articles/building-feminist-jails-ignores-a-larger-problem/
Invited Talks
Scholar-Advocate -in-Residence, Project on Public Leadership and Action (PPLA), Wellesley College, 2023
“Incarcerated Women and Media Activism.” Race, Equity, and Justice Conversation Series with Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill, Arts & Humanities, University of Maryland, 2020
National Fellowships
American Association of University Women, American Fellowship (2021-2022)
President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Maryland
(2019 -2021)
Grants
Outright Book Grant, First Gen Program, University of California Press, 2023
Demmler Innovation in Teaching and Curriculum, Allegheny College, 2023
Conference Travel Grant, National Women’s Studies Association, 2022
Research Development Grant, Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication, 2021
Arts and Humanities Faculty Funds, Innovation Grant, University of Maryland, 2020
Click here to view my CV
Stay in the Know
Books
Abolition. Feminism. Now.
Black Women's Liberatory Pedagogies: Resistance, Transformation, and Healing Within and Beyond the Academy
The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness
The New Jim Crow
Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed The Movement
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and The Politics of Empowerment
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement
Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
Black Women's Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace
Media Appearances
Interviewed and Quoted. “Scholar-Advocate Visits Wellesley To Discuss Women and Incarceration.” The Wellesley News.
Interviewed and Quoted. “Trend Toward Social Media Activism in Prisons Gains Steam.” Truthout.
Get in Touch
