Katherine Bruce-Lockhart (she/her) is an Associate Professor in History at the University of Waterloo and is also a faculty member at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Scholar.

Bruce-Lockhart’s research examines the global history of prisons, punishment, and human rights. Her recent book, Carceral Afterlives: Prisons, Detention, and Punishment in Postcolonial Uganda, analyzes how prisons and other colonial carceral spaces persisted in Uganda after independence and critiques their ongoing existence. Bruce-Lockhart is currently working on several comparative and collaborative projects: one on British colonial incarceration and punishment on the African continent; another tracing the history of the Nelson Mandela Rules and movements for prisoners’ rights and prison abolition within the United Nations and other international forums; and one looking at the mass early releases of prisoners around the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her research, teaching, and community engagement, Bruce-Lockhart focuses on how history can inform and impact ongoing struggles for justice and liberation. This includes her contributions to a report for the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions and her involvement in community organizations focused on anti-racism, prisoners’ rights, and prison abolition. She is part of the Department of History’s Anti-Racism Taskforce (HART).