Marie Gottschalk is an American political scientist and criminologist, known for her critical analyses of the American penal system. She is a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, where her research focuses on mass incarceration, the carceral state, and its intersections with politics and economics. Her most influential works include *The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America* (2006), in which she explores the historical and political roots of the prison system's expansion, and *Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics* (2015), which examines how penal policies have profoundly limited democracy and social reforms. Her work has earned her prestigious awards, including the Ellis W. Hawley Prize of the Organization of American Historians for the first book and the Michael J. Harrington Book Award of the American Political Science Association for the second, consolidating her reputation as one of the most authoritative voices in the field of criminal justice.