
Deena A. Isom is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. She received her PhD in 2015 in Sociology with specializations in Criminology and Social Psychology from Emory University. Her research brings marginalized voices and lived experiences center to the understandings of the causes and consequences of negative and harmful behaviors and entanglement with the justice system through the advancement of criminological theory, critical perspectives, and intersectional methodologies. Her work has appeared in numerous outlets such as the Race and Justice, Feminist Criminology, Critical Sociology, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Social Science & Medicine, and Youth & Society. In addition to her accolades, she is the author of the book, Gratuitous Angst in White America: A Theory of Whiteness and Crime, published in 2024 by Routledge.
Gratuitous Angst in White America presents a new criminological theory that explains the racialized experiences of white people. Unlike orthodox traditions that assume whiteness as normative or progressive traditions that center the experiences of the marginalized and oppressed, the theory of whiteness and crime flips those perspectives and turns a lens toward white people’s lived experiences and the ideologies of whiteness. This book examines the racialized history of America to contextualize the current racial strife in society and inform a more nuanced theoretical approach to explaining disparities. The reader will gain a socio-historical understanding of the depths of the current divides and insight into how such are perpetuated and potentially dismantled.
Dr. Isom will speak to students and researchers about her book at the Center on Crime, Race, and Justice on Monday, March 10 at noon in Churchill Hall.
Monday, March 10, 2025 at 12 PM
200 Churchill Hall