2026 Carwardine Prize Announced

The history of mass incarceration in the United States is most often written as a history of how criminal justice policymaking has rendered Black men vulnerable to intensive policing and severe sentencing. My MSt thesis altered both the landscape and subjects of historical enquiry by exploring female prisoners’ experiences of incarceration during the rise of the carceral state in the 1980s. Through examining women’s first-hand testimonies from the feminist newsletter, No More Cages, my thesis demonstrated that incarcerated women were subjected to a punitive, repressive, and distinctly gendered penal regime.

Incarcerated women’s experiences traversed a continuum of violence, ranging from prison authorities’ wilful neglect of their educational development, familial responsibilities and reproductive needs to the targeted abuse of female prisoners through extractive domestic labour, medical mistreatment and sexual violence in solitary confinement. Historicising incarcerated women’s experiences not only elucidates the gendered hierarchies of the carceral regime but also foregrounds the prison as a space of significant social control during the rise of mass incarceration. The late-twentieth-century punitive turn in crime control and sentencing extended to correctional policy. Changes to the internal workings of the prison, such as an increased presence of male guards, the hardening of prison walls, and the expansion of solitary confinement, created carceral conditions ripe for abuse. Incarcerated individuals experienced the cumulative violence of a criminal justice system that aggressively policed them, imposed harsh sentences, and ultimately sought to incapacitate them behind prison walls. My MSt thesis demonstrated that for incarcerated women, this process of incapacitation was gendered; not only were they confined to an undercaste of prisoners, but also to a state of distinctly gendered marginalisation.

Dr. Emily Brady, Departmental Lecturer in American History, said “We are delighted to award Emma Wilkins the 2026 Carwardine Prize. Emma’s work has been to a consistently high standard, with her dissertation exploring female prisoners’ experiences of mass incarceration. The Americanist community in Oxford has greatly benefited from Emma’s engagement in seminars and reading groups, where her intellectual contributions frequently enriched discussions. This reflected her passionate participation and intellectual engagement with her peers in class. Emma has produced a scholarly rich and academically rigorous body of work during her time on the MSt, and we wish her all the best for her future.”