Hi!

I am a sociologist and musician based in Minneapolis.

My academic work examines the political economy of penal development. Currently, I am working to understand why states decide to close prisons, how they select certain prisons for closure, and the effects of a prison closure on the surrounding economy. Here are some of my most current projects:

• Seligman, E. & Nam-Sonenstein, B. (2024). 10 ways that mass incarceration is an engine of economic injustice. Prison Policy Initiative.

• Phelps, M. S., & Seligman, E. (2024). Probation and the shadow carceral state: Legal envisioning from Minnesota. Theoretical Criminology.

• Carceral Political Economy in the Era of “Late” Mass Incarceration. Conference organized at The New School, NYC, March 2025.

• LABR 669 | Labor & Incarceration. Original graduate seminar syllabus for CUNY School of Labor & Urban Studies, 2022.

As a composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist, I build music and dance pieces and infuse songwriting with orchestral textures. Here is some recent work:

• Marks + Channels, Artist residency at Harvard ArtLab (2025).

• Proxies, Artist residency at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (2023).

• Original score for dance film, “To and Fro”, below.