Faculty Director: Keith Reeves '88
Keith Reeves is a professor of political science, department chair and director of the Urban Inequality and Incarceration program at the College's Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. Prior to his appointment at Swarthmore in 1999, he was an associate professor of public policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
A 1988 graduate of Swarthmore who majored in political science with the concentration in Black Studies and public policy and who attended Exeter College at Oxford University, England, Reeves teaches courses across the arenas of American government, electoral politics, and public opinion; racial politics and voting rights policy; the urban underclass, poverty, and public policy; and behavioral research methods.
Professor Reeves is a former Henry Luce Scholar and the author of Voting Hopes or Fears?: White Voters, Black Candidates and Racial Politics in America (Oxford University Press, 1997). At present, Reeves is working on a book project that explores several controversial explanations underlying the high incarceration trends among black males. He is a member of the American Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, the National Eagle Scout Association, and an associate member of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.
Maggie O'Neil '17
Maggie is the Urban Initiatives Fellow and Teaching Assistant for the Program on Urban Inequality and Incarceration. Before stepping into this role, Maggie has been connected to UII in various capacities for the past three years. As a junior at Swarthmore College, Maggie participated in Keith Reeves’s Politics of Punishment Inside/Out course. She then worked as Professor Reeves’s sole Teaching Assistant throughout her senior year and incorporated her experience with the class in her Political Science comprehensive exercise "Unrepresentative Democracy: Evaluating Democratic Theory in the Era of Mass Incarceration." Upon graduation, Maggie was selected to serve as one of three inaugural UII|SBAN Legal Interns where she continued to develop her understanding of the current criminal justice system. In the future, Maggie intends to incorporate this invaluable experience and learning into a career in law.
Maggie graduated from Swarthmore College in 2017 and she received her B.A. in Political Science and Psychology. She is from Woodbury, Conn., and attended high school at The Taft School in nearby Watertown, Conn. Beyond academics at Swarthmore, Maggie was extremely active in athletics and enjoyed volunteering. She was a four year, varsity-letter winner and senior captain of both Basketball and Track & Field. Additionally, she was a coach for Swarthmore's TOPS Soccer Program and volunteered for Hospice Compassus.
Grace Zhang '20
Web Designer
Shelby Dolch ‘21
Photographer