Adam Kluge

Adam Kluge is a DPhil Candidate at the Centre for Criminology. His research exists at the intersections of stigma theory, prisoners’ families research, gender, mass violence, and the political economy of punishment. Drawing from the fields of political and social theory, his work 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 social control, subjectivities, and state power, providing a novel consideration of the family as an active political subject.

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 theoretical and ethnographic inquiry across the United States and Britain, he is interested in exploring the following research questions: How are contemporary families deliberately stigmatised following the crime of a relative? When does the criminal legal process begin, and who can be considered a 'carceral citizen'? What is the relationship between stigma and neoliberal strategies of governance? Can a political conception of stigma produce a more inclusive sociology of punishment? 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 researcher supporting the local charity Children Heard and Seen and participated in the Europaeum Scholars Programme. Adam is also an active member and organiser of the Global Prisoners' Families Research Network. Before starting graduate school, Adam completed a dual BA in Political Science and History at Columbia University, graduating with interdepartmental honours.