Rita Shah (she/her/hers)
Education
- B.A., American University, 2003
- Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 2011
Interests and Expertise
- Corrections
- Cultural criminology
- Textual analysis
- Qualitative and visual methods
Professional
Dr. Rita Shah (she/her/hers) is a cultural criminologist who combines textual analysis with qualitative and visual methods to understand the ways in which correctional systems are socially and legally constructed. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Criminology and Contemporary Justice Review and is supported by NEH and NSF grants. Her most recent book, The Meaning of Rehabilitation and its Impact on Parole: There and Back Again in California (2017), queries the concept of rehabilitation to determine how, on a legislative and policy level, the term is defined as a goal of correctional systems. She received her BA in communications, legal institutions, economics and government (CLEG) from American University and her MA in social ecology and Ph.D. in criminology, law and society from the University of California, Irvine. In her free time, she can be found on photographic expeditions or watching football.