Heather Thompson, along with project team members Christian Davenport, Matthew Lassiter, Kentaro Toyama, Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, Melissa Borja, Ruby Tapia, and William Lopez, have received a $1,999,834 LSA research initiative grant for their Change the World project. 

The project, "Confronting the Carceral State: Criminalization, Confinement, and Control," investigates the historical and current state of the U.S. carceral system.

"The team will partner with community organizations and affected individuals to center the voices and lived experiences of incarcerated people and criminalized communities, to bring transparency and democratic accountability to law enforcement, and to “change the narrative” around the carceral state in an effort to dismantle systemic racism and promote social justice."