What is gripes and musings?

I will intermittently post writing that isn’t a great fit for academic journals, magazines, or twitter threads. Some topics that interest me include criminalization, labor, politics, and social science theory & methods.

Who am I?

I’m Jon Ben-Menachem. I’m a PhD student in Sociology at Columbia University. My research generally asks the question: “How did we end up with mass criminalization, and why does it persist?” You can read more about my research here.

Most recently, I published a piece explaining the findings of my research regarding traffic stops and voter turnout with the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage.

I’ve also worked as a freelance journalist and commentary contributor. You can find links to my past reporting and commentary here.

Why subscribe?

Well, if you like the posts you see here, then feel free to join the mailing list! I make no promises regarding the frequency of updates. Maybe that makes this, uh, fun and mysterious for you.