Fall 2026 Office Hours
Via Zoom
M: 10:00 - 1:00 pm 
Or by appointment

Amber Joy Powell received her PhD in Sociology at the University of Minnesota in 2022. Her research examines the intersections of gendered based violence, racialized criminalization, law, and the carceral state. In her prior research, Amber examined the role of courts in discrediting youth sexual assault victims (Gender & Society) with Heather Hlavka and Sameena Mulla, and the impact of racialized police violence in North Minneapolis (Law & Society Review, American Journal of Sociology) with Michelle Phelps. Her most recent work explores how penal institutions reproduce sexual violence, its impact on (formerly) incarcerated survivors, and the legal responses that ensue from the Prison Rape Elimination Act (Social Forces, Violence Against Women). Amber has also examined how formerly incarcerated survivors of gender-based violence, anti-prison activists, and victim advocates contest carceral understandings of sexual safety (Gender & Society, Feminist Criminology, Theoretical Criminology). Amber is currently conducting an original mixed-methods project with Dr. Jonathan Reid (Texas A&M) on the historical legacies of racialized sexual violence against Black men.

Amber Powell CV