Lisa Cacho on Social Death and the Racialized Construction of Criminals

In this week’s episode, guest host Stephen Suh interviews Dr Lisa Cacho [1], who is an associate professor of Latina/Latino studies and Asian American studies at the University of Illinois. Together, they discuss Dr Cacho’s recent book Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected [2]. In it, Dr Cacho explains the sociological concept of "social death" and how it often applies to racial minorities in America. Her book explores how the notion of a racial Other contributes to the criminalization of people on the basis of status, rather than their behavior.

Download Office Hours #110 [3]

[1] http://www.asianam.illinois.edu/people/lcacho

[2] http://nyupress.org/books/9780814723753/

[3] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH110_Cacho.mp3