FROM Pr*son CELLS TO PHD | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation

"This is an incredibly powerful book about abolition, redemption, transformation, and the power of story in the fight for justice..." – Rich Milner, Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University

Growing up in Ferguson, Missouri, Stanley Andrisse began making poor decisions at a very young age. He started selling dope and was arrested for the first time at fourteen years old. By his early twenties, dope dealing had exponentially multiplied, and he found himself sitting in front of a judge facing twenty years to life on drug trafficking charges. The judge sentenced him to ten years in a maximum-security Pr*son.

Pr*son was an experience like none other he’d ever encountered. While challenged with a strong desire for self-renewal, he faced an environment that was not conducive for transformative change. From poor institutional structure and policies to individual institutionalized thinking and behaviors, he battled on a daily basis to retain and maintain his humanity.

Upon release, and after several rejections, Stanley was accepted into a PhD program. He completed his PhD/MBA simultaneously and became an endocrinologist and impactful leader at Johns Hopkins Medicine, specializing in diabetes research.

Dr. Stanley Andrisse is joining us on the Busboys stage alongside Michael Ralph, Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies and Founding Director of the Center for an Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society (E2S2) at Howard University. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Dr. Andrisse will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of FROM Pr*son CELLS TO PHD will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.

We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books

Dr. Stanley Andrisse is an endocrinologist scientist and assistant professor at Howard University College of Medicine researching type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Dr. Andrisse holds a visiting professorship at Georgetown University Medical Center and held an adjunct professorship at Johns Hopkins Medicine after completing his postdoctoral training. Dr. Andrisse completed his PhD at Saint Louis University and his MBA and bachelor’s degree at Lindenwood University, where he played three years of Division II collegiate football.

Dr. Andrisse’s service commitments include: Executive Director and Founder of From Pr*son Cells to PhD, board member on the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN), past president of the Johns Hopkins Postdoctoral Association, founder of the Diversity Postdoctoral Alliance, member on several local and national committees aimed at community outreach, youth mentor, motivational speaker, and community activist.

Michael Ralph is Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies and Founding Director of the Center for an Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society (E2S2) at Howard University. His research integrates political science, economics, history, and medical and economic anthropology through an explicit focus on debt, slavery, insurance, forensics, and incarceration.

Michael is the recipient of fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in US History and W.E.B. Dubois Fellowship, and the Robert L. Heilbroner Center for Studies in Capitalism at the New School for Social Research.

Michael’s 2015 book Forensics of Capital demonstrates that the social profile of an individual or country is a credit profile as well as a forensic profile. Michael is now completing several books. Life explores the relationship between the history of actuarial science, slavery, life insurance, and other techniques for determining how much someone’s life is worth. Before 13th revises the scholarly consensus about private Pr*son labor, or convict leasing, showing that it did not begin with the 13th amendment but several decades prior.

Michael is also completing the graphic book, Fishing, which illustrates how people who are incarcerated improvise strings (from bed sheets, clothing, dental floss, and other fabrics) they can tie to objects to share with each other).

Michael is also the creator of, Treasury of Weary Souls, the world’s most complete ledger of slave insurance.

Host or Publisher Busboys and Poets