4000 University Drive
McKeesport, PA 15132
Biography
Sociologist and criminologist focused on social problems in connection with deindustrialization and how they intersect with the criminal justice system; research on drugs, guns, and socio-political violence. Research and publications contribute to the intellectual discourses of sociology and criminology. I am published in Social Text, Perspectives on Politics, Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, and The Feminist Wire.
Research Interests
Social problems in connection with deindustrialization
Interaction between social identity, drugs, and gun violence
Publications
Hidden labor, hidden harm: Gendered trauma exposure in community supervision, Women and Criminal Justice
ROI and the misclassification of criminal justice education programs: how accountability metrics shape public universities and the evaluation of CJ education , Journal of Criminal Justice Education - July 9, 2026
Taking stock: A scoping review of research in criminal justice education, Journal of Criminal Justice Education
Collaborator: Laura Cruz
Policing pain: A qualitative study of non-criminal justice approaches to managing opioid overdose during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community - June 1, 2021
Collaborator: Katherine McLean, Co-Author
Veterans and disability - 2018
Re-Imagining public space: The Frankfurt School in the 21st century. Edited by Diane Boros and James M. Glass. , Perspective on Politics - January 31, 2018
Knowledge is for cutting: Waging war on the human terrain, Transmissions: Journal of Film and Media Studies - June 1, 2017
War and disability, Feminist Wire - November 25, 2013
Mayberry R.F.D. will not be presented tonight, Social Text Online - June 17, 2013
Education
Ph D, Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center
M Phil, Sociology, City of New York Graduate Center
MA, Sociology/Race & Ethnicity, Fordham University
BA, English Literature, Ohio University
Papers and Presentations
April 18, 2026 - April 19, 2026
Papers and Oral Presentations
Insured Harm: Violence Without Spectacle, Harm Without Witness
North Central Sociological Association
Pittsburgh, PA
March 17, 2026
Papers and Oral Presentations
Insured Harm: Violence Without Spectacle, Harm Without Witness
Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators (PACJE) Annual Meeting
Greensburg, PA
November 13, 2024 - November 16, 2024
Papers and Oral Presentations
Early Childhood Trauma Exposure Among U.S. Probation and Pretrial Officers: A Mixed Methods Study
American Society of Criminology (ASC)
San Francisco, CA
September 16, 2024 - September 18, 2024
Papers and Oral Presentations
Towards a Trauma Informed Care Approach to Probation Management: A Mixed Methods Study
National Institute of Justice Research Conference
Pittsburgh, PA
Not yet submitted
April, 2024 - April 5, 2024
Papers and Oral Presentations
Towards a Trauma Informed Approach to Probation Management: A Mixed Methods Study
Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators (PACJE) Annual Meeting
Altoona, PA
Paper reports data from a mixed methods study that examined the adverse childhood experiences (ACE scores) of a sample of U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services officers. Results and analysis address the study findings and advance policy recommendations.
March 19, 2024 - March 21, 2024
Papers and Oral Presentations
Punishing Trauma: An Exploratory Study of the Childhood Trauma & Victimization of U.S. Probation and Pretrial Officers
Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL
The paper presents results from a survey of 423 U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services officers. Data and analysis evaluate the early adverse childhood experiences of the officers (ACEs) and document support for workplace-based trauma informed programs.
October, 2023
Posters and Oral Presentations
Punishing Trauma: An Exploratory Study of the Childhood Victimization of Probation Officers
International Corrections & Prisons Association (ICPA) Annual Meeting
Antwerp, BE
September 6, 2023 - September 8, 2023
Papers and Oral Presentations
Weapon-Body-Drug Assemblages: Theorizing the effects of aggressive policing within the context of the U.S. war on drugs
Sixth Contemporary Drug Problems Conference
Paris, France
The paper explores an application of Gilles Deleuze’s Assemblage Theory in addition to Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics to supplement current theoretical approaches within the field of criminology to study the policing of drug users.
June 7, 2023 - June 10, 2023
Panels
Panel: Global Health and the Post-COVD Era
9th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference (Convegno Di Etnografia E Ricerca Qualitativa)Uni
Trento
June 4, 2023 - June 6, 2023
Papers and Oral Presentations
The Intersection of Police Trauma, Violence, and Public Health
9th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference (Convegno Di Etnografia E Ricerca Qualitativa)
Trento, Italy
The paper presented results from a qualitative study of US probation officers that explored job-related trauma and stress experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
August 6, 2021 - August 10, 2021
Papers and Oral Presentations
Using Student-Centered Learning to Disrupt the Prison to College Pipeline
ASA - American Sociological Association Annual Meeting
Virtual
June 9, 2021 - June 12, 2021
Panels
Panel: Public Health Interventions: Global Problems, Local Solutions
8th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference (Convegno Di Etnografia E Ricerca Qualitativa)
Bergamo, Italy
International panel features research focused on local health interventions and community solutions to health problems. This panel, which I organized, takes up the question of how critical ethnographic research methodologies can be used to complicate and extend standard understandings and approaches to key public health issues.
June 9, 2021 - June 12, 2021
Papers and Oral Presentations
Policing Pain: A Qualitative Ethnography of Police Encounters in McKeesport, PA
8th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference (Convegno Di Etnografia E Ricerca Qualitativa)
Bergamo, Italy
Paper discusses subject encounters with police in connection with drug overdose and residence in McKeesport, Pa.
November 14, 2018 - November 16, 2018
Papers and Oral Presentations
Guns, Drugs, and the War at Home
American Society of Criminology (ASC)
Atlanta, GA
Paper explores commonalities between gun-obsessed mass murder and opioid abuse in order to suggest shared policy solutions.
June 6, 2018 - June 9, 2018
Papers and Oral Presentations
Knowledge Wars: The University Must be Defended
7th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference (Convergno Di Etnografia E Ricerca Qualitativa)
Bergamo, Italy
Presentation illustrated ethnographic research on college students, which explores how guns may be incorporated into their social identities. Research methods include participant observation, videotaped focus groups, and visually informed ethnography, consisting of photography. Grounded theory that is further informed by social identity theory, intersectional theory, and affect theory; these interpretive theories are used to explain data about the different ways guns and violence imbricate student self-making projects.
May 31, 2018 - June 2, 2018
Papers and Oral Presentations
The Deer Hunter's Political Economy of Violence
Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Annual Conference
Pittsburgh, PA
The film “The Deer Hunter” provides an example of how are war imaginaries and human geographies are bound up in violence and war. Media fascination with the era’s anti-war politics has, however, tended to elide how the techniques of warfare were transformed during this time: war became invested in the transformation of the body, the species, and life itself.
June 1, 2016 - June 4, 2016
Papers and Oral Presentations
Middle-Range Theories and Long-Range Missiles: Science as Performance
Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Annual Conference
Philadelphia, PA