Meera Santhanam

Meera Santhanam is a political science major and chemistry minor at the University of Chicago passionate about creating a more equitable criminal justice system. She has worked as an investigative intern at the Washington D.C. Public Defender Service helping provide legal representation to indigent individuals apprehended in the District of Columbia and currently interns at the Exoneration Project in Chicago, an organization which petitions courts to reverse wrongful convictions. She currently researches the legacy of mass incarceration in the American South, the role of race in the criminal legal system, and theories of prison abolition. On campus, Meera is the Head Editor of the Viewpoints section of The Chicago Maroon, the University of Chicago newspaper, where she writes and edits op-eds as well as serves on the Maroon Editorial Board. She also serves as the Tutor Engagement Coordinator for Maroon Tutor Match, a student- run initiative that pairs UChicago students with high school students in Chicago for one-on-one tutoring. In her free time, she enjoys studying Japanese, running, and drinking copious amounts of tea.