Conor Hodges
Research interests:
20th Century U.S. History, Carceral Studies, Military History, Black Freedom Struggle, Insurgency & Counterinsurgency, Wars on Crime, Drugs, and Terror
Bio:
Conor Hodges is a joint PhD student in the Departments of History and African American Studies at Yale University. He grew up in Fairview Shores, Florida, between Eatonville and Orlando. Conor studies the relationship between the U.S. military and law enforcement, particularly in the latter half of the twentieth century and with regard to racialized national security threat(s). He is currently working on two research projects. The first treats Cold War defense intellectuals, the Black urban insurrections of the 1960’s, counterinsurgency wargaming, and the ideological construction of a ‘Criminal Justice System.’ The second concerns the erosion of Posse Comitatus and attendant intensification of militarized hemispheric counternarcotics efforts over the course of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Conor’s research on race and law enforcement militarization has received support from the United States Army Heritage and Education Center and the Virginia Military Institute.
Beyond the classroom and archive, Conor is committed to building accessible, equitable, and transformative educational experiences. He is a trustee and director of the Telluride Association, which operates a variety of free academic summer programs and residential communities oriented towards democracy and service. He also served as the Racial Justice in Public Safety Fellow at Cornell University, where he contributed to the redesign of that university’s emergency response system in response to student demands. Before pursuing the PhD, Conor served as a combat medic in the United States Army.
He welcomes inquiries on any of the above topics.