Dr. Tamanika Ferguson
A feminist scholar of the carceral state studying and writing about punitive systems that cause harm and suffering and the resistance to these systems.
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“Abolition is not theory—
it's the voices of incarcerated women rising, resisting,
and rebuilding the world.”
— Tamanika Ferguson, Ph.D
Welcome!
Welcome to my digital home. I am a mission-driven scholar, social impact strategist, and research consultant committed to advancing gender justice, prison abolition, and racial equity. My work brings together research, advocacy, and public storytelling to create transformative change.
About
Getting To Know Me
Tamanika Ferguson, Ph.D. is a Black feminist–womanist scholar, educator, and strategist committed to advancing gender justice, racial equity, and prison abolition through research, public scholarship, and community collaboration. Her interdisciplinary work spans social- justice advocacy, communication studies, feminist criminology and sociology, and carceral studies.​
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Dr. Ferguson holds a Ph.D. in Communication, Culture & Media Studies with a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from Howard University, where her ethnographic dissertation focused on the political agency and media activism of incarcerated women. She also earned her M.A. in Africana Studies and Sociology and B.A. in Africana Studies with a minor in Public Administration from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
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Her academic journey has been shaped by a deep commitment to centering the voices and lived experiences of justice-impacted communities. Currently a Visiting Research Scholar in Women’s & Gender Studies at Wellesley College, Dr. Ferguson previously served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Allegheny College and a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Maryland. Across these institutions, she has designed and taught high-impact courses in critical prison studies, social movements, intersectionality, and public speaking for social justice advocacy.​
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Dr. Ferguson is the author of the forthcoming book Voices from the Inside: Incarcerated Women Speak (UC Press, 2026), and her peer-reviewed work has appeared in Feminist Formations and is forthcoming in Feminist Criminology. She is also a public intellectual whose commentary and op-eds have been featured in Truthout, The Progressive, The SocialistViewpoint, and the Scholars Strategy Network.
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In addition to her academic work, Dr. Ferguson has worked closely and collaborated across sector spaces with practitioners, organizers, academics, communication specialist, and community advocates leading advocacy campaigns and building research-to-practice pipelines that elevate abolitionist feminist work and support gender justice and racial equity through small- and large-scale projects, conferences, workshops, and community trainings.
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Across every platform—whether in classrooms, communities, or nonprofit spaces—Dr. Ferguson bridges theory and praxis, striving to build a world rooted in collective liberation, care, and justice.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW MY CV​
Research Projects
Book project was supported by the American Association of University Women (AAUW),
the Organization for Research on Women and Communication (ORWAC) and the University of Maryland.
​​As a former incarcerated teen with a personal and family history with the criminal punishment systems in California, I empathize with incarcerated Black women and other women of color and deeply appreciate their agency and resistance against the carceral state. So I made it my mission to share their personal narratives with the general public by turning my dissertation research into a book. My forthcoming book, Voices from The Inside: Incarcerated Women Speak is slated to be published in Summe2026 with the University of California Press, which is a reputable academic press with leading books in critical carceral studies and sociology. Voices from The Inside demonstrates how criminalized and incarcerated women and gender diverse persons in California operate and execute measures of empowerment and resistance for their own survival, institutional change, and prison abolition. Voices from The Inside is based on archival research thanks to the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and interviews with formerly incarcerated women in California. Building on their narratives, this book helps the general audience understand the social and political complexities of working for transformative justice while struggling to stay alive and navigate the brutality of incarceration. Ultimately, the book offers an exceptional case on the meaning of resistance communities behind bars and prison abolition in practice.​​
"In the Belly of the Beast:" Feminist Lessons in The Politics and Practice of Prison Abolition
The undeniable allegations of state-sanctioned rapes of incarcerated women at FCI Dublin in 2022 and the unspeakable retaliation and swift prison transfers mobilized a statewide movement in California against gender violence, male domination, and the carceral state. The movement mobilized calls for racial and gender justice, decarceration, and prison abolition. While activists' demands for justice and decarceration are not a new phenomenon, they sparked national discourse by the media and across prison walls than at any time since the “Free Joan Little” movement in 1974. While feminist scholars have produced a rich body of work that documents, theorizes and promotes abolition feminism, only a handful of projects have theorized the advocacy, resistance, and prison activism of system impacted people as abolitionist and feminist. In this article, I draw on the lens of abolition feminism, transformative justice, and intersectional to show how socially and politically marginalized incarcerated women and gender diverse persons articulate and demonstrate transformative justice behind bars and their visions of freedom. The anecdotal and narrative accounts reveal insights into how their situatedness in hierarchies of intersectional oppression fuels their personal and political engagement in activism, as well as the possibilities of their structural explanations and lived experiences contributing to critical debates that intervene to shape laws and social policy.
Lessons in Resistance, Activism, and Solidarity: Incarcerated Women and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners
In 2000, Charisse Shumate, a co-founding member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) and other incarcerated women in California gathered at a senate hearing to give testimony on medical and living conditions in prison. Incarcerated women’s narratives demonstrate the key role that their critical agency played in their advocacy for a humane prison system. The narratives also illustrate women’s resolve to use their voices to speak up. Women’s experiences of incarceration have long been silenced and this was part of the collective experience shared at the senate hearing. The collaborative work to document the hearings as well as women’s prison experiences and activism reflects an important response to women’s invisibility in dominant discourses of prisons and imprisonment and the marginalization that incarcerated women experience in the broader anti-carceral movement. The California Coalition for Women Prisoners, a coalition-building organization founded by women on both sides of the razor wire, is an abolitionist feminist organization founded in San Francisco, California in 1995. CCWP practices a specific brand of activism that prioritizes and supports the voices, leadership, and creativity of women and transgender people incarcerated in women’s prisons.​​
Liberatory Education
“Feminist teaching is abolitionist work—it challenges hierarchies, centers lived experience, and equips students to become agents of liberation within and beyond the classroom.”
-- Tamanika Ferguson, Ph.D.
Feminist Pedagogy in Practice: Critical Inquiry, Collaborative Learning, Transformative Mentorship
Dr. Tamanika Ferguson’s teaching is rooted in feminist pedagogy, social justice theory, and transformative learning. She approaches the classroom as a collaborative space that prioritizes critical inquiry, co-creation, and care. Her pedagogy centers historically marginalized voices and emphasizes the interconnectedness of academic knowledge and lived experience. Students are encouraged to question dominant narratives, engage deeply with structural issues, and apply what they learn to the work of liberation.
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Dr. Ferguson has designed and taught a wide range of interdisciplinary and justice-centered courses, including:
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Critical Prison Studies
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Social Movements in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
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Introduction to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
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Oral Communication: Social Justice Focus
Each course is intentionally structured to center historically marginalized voices, emphasize intersectional analysis, and integrate experiential learning through project-based learning, applied activities, and public-facing assignments.
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As a mentor, Dr. Ferguson is deeply committed to supporting students—especially first-generation, BIPOC, and justice-impacted learners. She has:​
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Supervised and trained doctoral students in qualitative research methods
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Coached students through public writing and op-ed publication
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Centered social work practices to remove structural barriers and support academic achievement
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Cultivated an equity and inclusive environment
Her mentorship is student-centered, empowering learners to develop voice, agency, and applied skills that extend far beyond the classroom.
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Testimonial
"I loved and cherished this class, the experiences I've had, the lessons I have learned and the endless wisdom and knowledge I will take from this course into my future experiences. Thank you so much for all the work you have put in for us. You are an incredible professor who shows utmost professionalism, care, and passion about the topics you've introduced."​
~~ Riley Pegher, WGSS Major, Spring 2023
​Accomplishments
Amplifying Impact Through Scholarship, Public Voice, and Transformative Funding
Featuring Selected Publications, Invited Talks, and Competitive Fellowships Advancing Justice-Centered Research and Advocacy
Works in Public Scholarship
​Ferguson, T. (2022). “Abortion Rights Movement Must Include Incarcerated People.”
https://progressive.org/op-eds/abortion-rights-include-incarcerated-people-ferguson-220720/
Ferguson, T. (2022). “Building “Feminist Jails” Ignores a Larger Problem.” https://truthout.org/articles/building-feminist-jails-ignores-a-larger-problem/
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​James, J. and Ferguson, T. (2022). “Fighting for Reproductive Justice and Self-Determination in Post-Roe America.”
https://www.socialistviewpoint.org/sepoct_22/sepoct_22_22.html.
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Invited Talks
​Scholar-Advocate -in-Residence, Project on Public Leadership and Action (PPLA), Wellesley College, 2023
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“Incarcerated Women and Media Activism.” Race, Equity, and Justice Conversation Series with Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill, Arts & Humanities, University of Maryland, 2020
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Project Funding ​
​Proud Shoes Book Fellowship, Pauli Murray Center on History and Social Justice (2024)
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Outright Book Grant, First Gen Program, University of California Press (2023)
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Research Development Grant, Allegheny College Faculty Funds (2023)
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Demmler Innovation in Teaching and Curriculum, Allegheny College (2023)
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Public Voices Fellowship, Equality Now & The OpEd Project (2022 - 2023)
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American Association of University Women, American Fellowship (2021-2022)​​​​
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Research Development Grant, Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication (2021)
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Special Purpose Innovation Grant, ARHU, University of Maryland (2020)
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​Media Appearances
​Interviewed and Quoted. “Scholar-Advocate Visits Wellesley To Discuss Women and Incarceration.” The Wellesley News.
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Interviewed and Quoted. “Trend Toward Social Media Activism in Prisons Gains Steam.” Truthout.
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Stay in the Know
Books
Abolition. Feminism. Now.
Black Women's Liberatory Pedagogies: Resistance, Transformation, and Healing Within and Beyond the Academy
The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness
The New Jim Crow
Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed The Movement
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and The Politics of Empowerment
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement
Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
Nikole Hannah-Jones​​
We Do This 'Til We Free Us
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