Claire de Mézerville López welcomes back Fatemeh Momeni, Ph.D., and Ben Feigenberg, Ph.D., from the University of Chicago Education Lab to the Restorative Works! Podcast.

 

Fatemeh and Ben join us as we continue our conversation from part one and dive deeper into the large-scale research they conducted in partnership with Chicago Public Schools. Fatemeh and Ben discuss the multi-layer collaboration with other entities in the city, including the school district and the police department. Through data sharing, technical assistance, and planning, their research outcomes provide a wider view of the impacts of institutional programming in the schools. They include examples of student populations that experience the benefits and potential negative impacts of restorative practices implementation.

 

Fatemeh is an applied microeconomist whose research focuses on the areas of labor and education. In her role as a research director at the Education Lab, Fatemeh provides scientific direction to a portfolio of education research projects studying programs designed to reduce academic and socio-emotional disparities for youth in the U.S. Before joining the Education Lab, she was a postdoctoral scholar in economics at the University of Chicago Economics Department and Chicago Experiments Initiative. She obtained her Ph.D. in economics in 2015 from Purdue University.

 

Ben is an associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois in Chicago. His research employs experimental and quasi-experimental methods to examine the consequences of policies and practices designed to promote public safety. His ongoing research investigates racial and socioeconomic disparities in U.S. criminal justice adjudication, the link between educational opportunity and criminal behavior in the U.S. and Honduras, and the effects of rehabilitative prison programming on post-release outcomes in Illinois. As a researcher, he has sought out opportunities to support innovative policy-making initiatives in the city and state.

 

Tune in to learn more about the outcomes of their research and their perspectives on the future benefits of continued restorative practices implementation in schools.