Kirby Sokolow

Kirby Sokolow is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania where she studies religion and politics in the United States. She holds a BA in Religion from Wesleyan University and an MA in Religious Studies from NYU.

Kirby’s doctoral dissertation explores Buddhism in American prisons and the dynamic relationships between dominant notions of religion, race, criminality, and American belonging since the late 19th century. She approaches prison Buddhism as an ongoing project of religion-making among prison chaplains, leaders of prison meditation programs, public figures, news outlets, and incarcerated people, all of whom have different aims, backgrounds, and biases. Drawing on archival research and media analysis, the dissertation considers the ways discourses that celebrate the “transformative” potential of Buddhism-informed prison programming in the U.S. participate in the disciplining, subject-making, and racializing work of state. How does rhetoric that Buddhism can change so-called angry prisoners into compassionate human beings set up a dichotomy between the “criminal” and the “Buddhist” and gain popularity through racializing assumptions attached to each category? The project also incorporates close readings of memoirs, letters, and essays by imprisoned people, exploring the unexpected ways embodied practices like meditation rewire circuits of feeling in prisons and produce new subjectivities and communities.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, Kirby is serving as a Boardman Fellow for the Penn Religious Studies Department. Outside of Penn, she volunteers for the health justice organization and newsletter Prison Health News.