Steven Spitzer, Professor

Steven Spitzer, Ph.D.
Professor

 

Mailing address:
Department of Sociology
Suffolk University
8 Ashburton Place
Boston, Massachusetts 02108

 

Phone: 617.573.8489
Fax: 617.994.4278
sspitzer@suffolk.edu
Office:  73 Tremont Street, 5th Floor, Room 572

Office Hours, Spring 2008

M 11:00AM-1:00PM; W 3:30-4:30PM         

 

Research Interests

Men in Prison; Initiation and Transformation in Correctional Settings; Masculinity and Justice; Gender Imagery, Role Performance and Mass Media.  
 

Education

Indiana University
Ph.D., Sociology, 1971
University of Maryland
M.A., Sociology, 1967
University of Maryland
B.A., Sociology, 1965
 

Employment

1985-present, Professor of Sociology, Suffolk University 

1980-1985, Associate Professor of Sociology, Suffolk University
1979-1980, Postdoctoral Fellow in Law and Sociology, Harvard University 1977-1980 Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Northern Iowa 1971-1977, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania     
 

Selected Publications

Spitzer, S. and A.T. Scull 2008. Privatization and Capitalist Development: The Case of the Private Police, International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice & Penology (Second Series).  
Spitzer, S. 2006. Ice Men (Poem) Smudgestick: Newsletter of the New England Men’s Network.  
Spitzer, S. 2002. Reaching Men in the Shadows: Men’s Circles in Prison Settings, Section 51 Newsletter of the American Psychological Association.  
S. Spitzer. 1999. The Rationalization of Crime Control in Capitalist Society, in I. Taylor, Crime and Political Economy.  
S. Spitzer. 1996.  Punishment and Social Organization: A Study of Durkheim’s Theory of Penal Evolution in A.J. Trevino, The Sociology of Law: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives.
Spitzer, S. 1995. Security and Control in Capitalist Societies: The Fetishism of Security and the Secret Thereof, in R.V. Ericson, Crime and the Media.   
S. Spitzer and S. Hicks. 1991. Myth and Law in Integrated Studies, Focus on Law Studies (American Bar Association). 
Spitzer, S. 1979-1988 (Editor) Research in Law, Deviance and Social Control (JAI Press). Recent Oral Presentations
Spitzer, S. 2007. Generativity Scripts in Prison Circles, Changing Lives Through Literature, Winter Training (Boston).
Spitzer, S. 2006. In the Belly of the Beast: The Web of Demands, Interests and Meaning in Prison Work, Keynote Address, High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology (Denver).
Spitzer, S. 2003. Healing Within: Circles Within and Beyond Prison Walls, The Mankind Project Summer Conference (Philadelphia). Spitzer, S. 2000. Native American Models of Justice in Urban Contexts, American Society of Criminology (San Francisco).
 

Professional Activities

2002-present, President, Jericho Circle Project, Inc.
2007 Chair, Ron Hering Award Committee, (MKP New England)
2005-Present, Research Director, “Inside Stories: The Lives of Men in Prison”  

Other Activities and Awards

2008 and 2007 Living in Mission Grant Award (MKP New England)
2006 Volunteer of the Year at Bay State Correctional Center (D.O.C.)
2003 Ron Hering Mission of Service Award (Mankind Project International)
2001-2008 Organizer and Coordinator, Jericho Circle Project, Men’s Circles and Weekend Workshops at the following correctional institutions: FMC Devens, MCI-Cedar Junction, Bay State Correctional Center, Hampshire County House of Correction, Adult Correctional Institution- Cranston, Rhode Island.
 

Recent Grant Support

Sociological Initiatives Foundation/Shaw Foundation. Closing the Circle: Men’s Groups From Community to Prisons to Community (2004-2005).
Helen and WIllliam Mazer Foundation. Daddy Stories from the Inside Out
(2004-2005)
 

Courses Taught

Seminar in Crime and Justice (MSCJS Graduate Program)
The Prison Experience: Literature, Film and Reality
Tough Guise: Representations of Masculinity
Cops and Robbers: Crime and Justice on Film
Freshman Seminar: The Prison in Imagination and Reality