College of Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences Associate Dean

I work as Associate Dean for the College of Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences at Roosevelt University, where I am also a Professor of Journalism and Media Studies in the Department of Humanities. Before I came to Roosevelt, I was an editor and investigative reporter for The Progressive magazine. One of my stories, an investigation of the use of the stun belt in U.S. prisons, won the George Polk Award. Information from that story, and from another I did on the use of restraint chairs on jail and prison inmates, led the United Nations Committee Against Torture to condemn U.S. use of the devices.

My extensive investigative work on U.S. prisons led to my nonfiction book Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America, published by Yale University Press in the spring of 2009 (paperback edition, fall 2010). I’ve also enjoyed reporting on labor, environmental, and mental health issues, and on sidewalk memorials in Chicago.