For the past ten years or so, my research interest has been in the area of social control and punishment. Specifically, I am influenced by Foucault and other writers who assess the ways that language shapes people’s experience, and the way that language limits how we think about behavior, for example, in prison therapy programs. Also, I am fascinated by the ironies of social control—the unintended consequences of well-intentioned efforts.  Currently, I am doing research on offender reentry programs in the state of Vermont. I have always been a qualitative researcher, and have conducted observational research and in-depth interviews. I have mostly studied intervention programs, such as the offender reentry programs I am studying now. My dissertation was on an HIV prevention program for injection drug users on the west coast.

 I came to UVM right after finishing my Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 1994. I also received my Master’s degree in sociology from Berkeley. While there I focused on the study of deviance and on qualitative research. At UVM I teach a large section of Deviance and Social Control, a mid-level class on Punishment and smaller senior seminars on Contemporary Justice and a service-learning course on applied sociology. I supervise internships for the sociology department as well.

 I am active in the international organization, the Society for the Study of Social Problems. I am also crime and deviance section editor for the new Blackwell on-line Sociology Compass journal. In my spare time, I am a coffee and dark chocolate enthusiast, fitness zealot, and avid mom of two adorable kids.