Adam Kluge

Adam Kluge is a DPhil Candidate at the Centre for Criminology. His research exists at the intersections of stigma, prisoners’ families research, gender studies, and the political economy of punishment. Drawing from the fields of social and political theory, his thesis offers a theoretical reconsideration of stigma as a political tool operated by state actors to systematically shame and blame marginalised communities via criminal legal mechanisms. This project further contends that the role of justice-involved families can be mapped onto broader political arguments around violence, social control, subjectivities, and penal power, providing a novel consideration of the family as an active political subject.

Adam is also interested in exploring the relationship between mass shootings in the United States, contested definitions of citizenship, and government responses to political violence.

Adam's work seeks to restore a sense of autonomy to those whose collateral experience of the carceral state constructs and disrupts their perceptions of society, citizenship, and self. Relying upon critical and qualitative inquiry across the United States and Europe, he is interested in exploring the following research questions: How are contemporary families deliberately stigmatised following the crime of a relative? Who can be considered a 'carceral citizen'? What is the relationship between stigma, violence, and neoliberal strategies of governance? Can a political conception of stigma produce a more inclusive sociology of punishment? What role might abolition play in a reconstruction of ‘the family’? 

His DPhil research is supervised by Professor Rachel Condry and supported by the ESRC Grand Union DTP Studentship and Lincoln College's Kingsgate Scholarship.

Adam completed the MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Oxford in 2023, graduating with Distinction. His master’s dissertation was awarded the annual Routledge Prize for the best dissertation in Criminology. During his time in Oxford, he has worked as a visiting lecturer and academic tutor; supported the local charity Children Heard and Seen; and participated in the Europaeum Scholars Programme. Adam is also an active member and co-director of the Global Prisoners' Families Research Network. 

Adam completed a dual BA in Political Science and History at Columbia University (2022), graduating with interdepartmental honours.