Joe Bartzel is a postdoctoral fellow for the Study of St. Louis and the American Story in the Program in American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He received a PhD in religious studies from Indiana University in 2019. His work focuses on the framework and tools of transitional justice—in particular, on the applicability of transitional justice as a response to the history and persistence of racial injustices and disparities inflicted on black Americans in the United States.