Congratulations to Jason Goodman on winning one of the coveted undergraduate fellowships at the James Weldon Johnson Institute (JWJI) for the Study of Race and Difference. Jason is a history major and is undertaking a fascinating cultural history of mass incarceration in the late twentieth century United States. The U.S. became the most punitive country in the world not only through the passage of harsh sentencing laws and massive investments in prisons and policing, but also through changes in the nation’s political culture. Popular culture became a site in which an increasingly punitive political culture was reflected, reinforced, and occasionally contested. Jason’s work aims to shed new light on how films worked to legitimize harsh punishment. The fellowship will provide Jason with a work space at the JWJI House for the remainder of the 2020-’21 academic year, a book allowance, and academic mentoring.