Dr. Mike Ray Casiano
Assistant Professor · Tenure-Track
Department of American Studies
College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
He/Him/His/Himself
About
Michael Casiano is an assistant professor in UMBC’s Department of American Studies and a core faculty member in UMBC’s Public Humanities minor. His book, Let Us Alone: The Origins of Baltimore’s Police State (University of Illinois Press, 2025), examines the relationship between policing, municipal governance, and race in post-Civil War Baltimore. Specifically, it analyzes policing in light of two parallel and inextricable realities. First, policing evolved from an inefficient and vigilante-driven system into a modern and paramilitary endeavor focused on suppressing citizens and maximizing the power, wealth, and reach of capitalists. Second, decades of racial antagonism shaped Baltimore policing into an apparatus primarily oriented around subduing Black freedom. Mike’s next project is a social history of early twentieth century port cities in the Mid-Atlantic that examines the relationship between policing, labor, and race. Mike has been involved in grassroots housing justice efforts in Baltimore for the past several years as part of Charm City Land Trusts, a community land trust located in East Baltimore, where he also lives. He is an affiliate faculty member in the Language, Literacy, and Culture (LLC) doctoral program and an associate member of UMBC’s graduate faculty. His work has been published or is forthcoming in Oxford Bibliographies, the Journal of Southern History, and the Journal of Urban History.Research interests
Research Interest(s): carceral studies, urban history, black studies, gender & sexuality studies, critical race & ethnic studiesTeaching interests
Teaching Interest(s): twentieth-century urban history, Baltimore history, cultural studies, African-American history, public humanities, engaged scholarshipEducation
- Postdoc, History — Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey (2019)
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Ph D, American Studies
— University of Maryland, College Park (2018) Broken City: Race, Property, and Culture
- BA, American Studies — University of Maryland, College Park (2012)
- BA, English Language and Literature — University of Maryland, College Park (2012)