Michael Casiano

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 project, Let Us Alone: The Origins of Baltimore’s Police State, examines the relationship between policing, municipal governance, and race in post-Civil War Baltimore. 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.

Education
  • PhD, Department of American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park (2018)
  • B.A., Department of American Studies, University of Maryland College Park (2012)
Selected Publications

Book

  • Casiano, Michael. Let Us Alone: The Origins of Baltimore’s Police State. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, October 2025. (In production).

Book Chapter

  • Casiano, Michael. “‘The Pot’: Criminalizing Black Neighborhoods in Jim Crow Baltimore.” In King, P. Nicole, Joshua C. Davis, and Kate Drabinski, eds. Baltimore Revisited: Stories of Inequality & Resistance in a U.S. City. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2019, pgs. 37-51.
Courses
  • AMST100: Introduction to American Studies
  • AMST300: Approaches in American Studies
  • AMST380: Community in America
  • AMST413: Policing and Prisons in U.S. Society
  • AMST490: Senior Seminar
  • AMST680: Community & Culture (Graduate Section for AMST413)
  • PUBH200: Introduction to Public Humanities