Samantha Simon

Samantha Simon is an Assistant Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy and the School of Sociology. Using ethnographic and qualitative methods, her research focuses on violence, gender, race, and organizational inequality. Her upcoming book – titled Before the Badge: How Academy Training Shapes Police Violence – is based on one year of ethnographic field work at four police training academies. In her book, she examines how the hiring and training at police academies emphasizes the use of violence, focusing on the ways that gender and race inform these processes.

Simon's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and the American Association for University Women, among others. Her work has been published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including in Social Problems, Law & Society Review, Qualitative Sociology, and Gender, Work & Organization. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.