Michael Leo Owens

Michael Leo Owens is a scholar of urban politics; state and local politics; political penology; governance and public policy processes; religion and politics; and African American politics. Author of God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America (University of Chicago Press, 2007), his current book project is Prisoners of Democracy, a study of the politics, policies, and attitudes that diminish the citizenship of felons in the United States. Former chair of the governing board of the Urban Affairs Association (2013-2015), Owens serves on the boards of directors and advisory boards of Prison Policy Initiative, the Georgia Justice Project, and Foreverfamily, as well as the editorial boards of the Journal of Urban Affairs and Politics & Religion. Owens also holds courtesy appointments in the Departments of African American Studies and Religion.