People

Get to know the project's team and find contact information.
Mikhail Nakonechnyi

I am a University Researcher and Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant, “Death, Smoke, and Mirrors: Manipulation of Health Data in Liberal and Authoritarian Custodial Institutions” (2024-2029). The project explores how penal authorities conceal prisoners’ poor health, focusing on British metropolitan, Indian colonial, American, and Soviet-Russian prisons and camps.
Matthew Brooke

I am a political and historical sociologist studying United States politics, conservative media, and democratization and democratic fragility. On the Death, Smoke, and Mirrors project, I research prisoner mortality in the convict lease system in the American South, 1868-1928.

I am also working on a book project, which builds on my dissertation research conceptualizing and analyzing the historical development of conservative Christian broadcasting in the United States.

Before academia, I worked as a social worker in the U.S. and as a journalist in Central America. 
Advisory Board
  • , University of Leicester
  • , University of Nottingham
  • , University of Oxford 
Project Collaborators, Past and Present
  • , Data Collection and Research Assistance, University of Helsinki
  • , Technical Assistant and Doctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki