Research

My current research investigates the political function of emotion. I examine incidents which evoke a strong emotional response and sensational media coverage: the killing of children by adult strangers. How do we collectively respond in the aftermath of these horrifying events? I take two sets of political responses to child killing as cases for my investigation: the adoption of the post-conviction psychiatric civil commitment of sex offenders in many states in the 1990s, and more recent efforts to adopt Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), which are meant to prevent people experiencing mental health crises from accessing firearms in order to prevent mass shootings. Civil commitment and ERPOs are both models developed in the immediate aftermath of horrifying incidents of child murder by strangers. I draw upon sociological theories of deviance and moral panic, especially as articulated by Stuart Hall and other Birmingham School sociologists, in order to analyze these social and state responses to violence. The symbol of the child-killing madman has long been particularly emotionally compelling figure, and I argue that there is an emotional politics inherent in mass media which amplifies sensational violence. The emotional politics of child murder reveal the way mass media society restructures political incentives by rewarding ideological narratives responding emotionally and symbolically to sensational events. I argue that the emotional politics of mass media society diverges significantly from liberal-democratic ideals of rational, deliberative democracy.  

I make use of a novel qualitative approach in this research, adopting ethnographic methods to the analysis of archival news articles, firsthand accounts and debates, and social media for the more recent ERPO cases. I make the case that discourse analysis of archival materials can be treated similarly to methods for processing observational notes in ethnography (and, in fact, I found that pioneers of ethnographic methods such as Glaser & Strauss and Charmaz made explicit reference to text analysis and library research when developing their approaches). I follow recent pioneering approaches to the sociological study of newspaper and social media materials to reconstruct the aftermath of horrific events, the media discourse which surrounded them, and the political and social movement responses and media strategies as groups sought to advance their interests in a time of outrage and intense, open-ended popular mandate.  

I have long been interested in the study of social problems with an eye toward concrete social action for the amelioration of poverty and violence. Early experiences as an undergrad working on the production of crime knowledge, my undergrad research on suburban police, and my experience working in applied policy research all informed my graduate research interest in epistemology and reflexive social research. I expanded my interest in social problems to include also the social construction of social problems and of their possible solutions. This encompasses a range of previous, current, and planned future research projects, from my dissertation project to research into the medieval history of prison institutions and reviews of novel, reflexive theoretical and methodological approaches.  

The concrete application of rigorous research to concrete social problems remains a major priority of mine. This has informed research collaboration with social work researchers at the Crown School undertaking critical research into the use of big data analysis and randomized controlled trials meant for an audience of non-profit practitioners. The focus on concrete applicability has also informed my longstanding and ongoing research work for Free to Heal (formerly the Civil Commitment Working Group of the Chicago chapter of Black and Pink), a volunteer feminist advocacy organization seeking to end punitive psychiatric commitment in favor of rationalized and victim-forward models of treatment, safety, and community health. My work with Free to Heal has been borne of a desire to make rigorous sociological research available and accessible to a non-academic audience. This is the same motivation with which I approach teaching sociology to college students, seeking to make sociological knowledge exciting and inspiring for majors and non-majors alike.