Dr. Hollis Moore

Biography

Hollis Moore researches sociality and the uneven expansion of carceral systems, focusing on experiences, relationships, and understandings of the individuals targeted by criminal law. With training as a sociocultural anthropologist, he has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in prisons in Northeast Brazil, aiming to amplify marginalized perspectives and center research and teaching on the Global South. His work seeks to challenge the common sense around carceral systems and the complicity involved in upholding transnational carceral logics. His academic interests include the intersection of political and legal anthropology, urban ethnography, and the study of gender and family life. Currently, he is conducting a longitudinal study on the complex trajectories of young Brazilians who have experienced the incarceration of a parent, focusing on the (re)production of marginalization through criminal law, policing, and imprisonment, alongside intergenerational processes of care and (de)criminalization. For over a decade, Dr. Moore has known his research participants, including children, who have graciously welcomed him into their homes, sharing insights, struggles, and daily routines. His work has been published in various venues including "Carceral Communities: Troubling 21st Century Prison Regimes in Latin America," the Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, and the Cambridge Handbook of Kinship.

Research Interests