Member Details

Political science professor Christina Rivers studies race, voting rights and representation, and early black political thought. Her current work explores the intersections of democracy and mass incarceration, including ballot access for citizens in jail awaiting trial, felony disenfranchisement laws, and prison-based gerrymanders. Rivers teaches at Stateville Correctional Center as part of DePaul's Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. She also coordinates a think-tank there that collaborated with local voting and civil rights organizations to write the "Re-Entering Citizens Civics Education Act". Signed into law in 2019, it mandates voter and civic education for individuals leaving the Illinois Department of Corrections. She volunteers to ensure voter access at Cook County jail, and is collaborating on state legislation to expand college programming in Illinois' prisons. Most recently she’s served on the advisory board for the Redistricting Data Hub, and on the selection committee for the Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission that is charged with submitting an alternative and more representative aldermanic ward map. Following her year as an inaugural Presidential Diversity Fellow, she has been co-chairing a committee to expand DePaul’s prison education, establish services for re-entering students, and promote their civic and leadership engagement. She was also recently trained by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Mexican-American Legal Defense fund to serve as an expert witness in redistricting and voting rights litigation.