Anya Degenshein (Ph.D. 2019, Northwestern) is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Law Studies in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University, where she is also affiliated faculty in the MS in Criminal Justice Data Analytics and the Race, Ethnicity, and Indigenous Studies (REIS) programs. A cultural sociologist by training, Dr. Degenshein uses discursive analysis and critical theory to understand the scope and consequences of contemporary punishment, with a particular interest in the creation of social inequality. Her sole-authored, award-winning research has appeared in Information, Communication & Society, Theoretical Criminology, Punishment & Society, Contexts, and Theory & Society.

 

Dr. Degenshein's current book project demonstrates the rhetorical construction of future criminality in post-9/11 counterterrorism stings. Previous empirical research projects include a 13-month ethnography of a Chicago pawnshop and a study of post-Recession prosecutorial lobbying in IL. Her teaching interests include law and society, surveillance studies, and theory.

 

Dr. Degenshein's interdisciplinary, social scientific background includes master's degrees from both Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, as well as a year as a doctoral exchange student in the CERI lab at Sciences Po, Paris. She completed her bachelor's degree at Cornell University, and has previously worked as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in Santiago, Chile, and a court advocate in the Manhattan felony courts for an alternative to incarceration program. She lives in Chicago.