Jarrod Shanahan, Ph.D.
Policing and Incarceration Expert
Dr. Jarrod Shanahan is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice in Governors State University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He is an expert on the history of the New York City jail system and a critical scholar of policing and incarceration in the United States.
Dr. Shanahan’s areas of research include jails, prisons, policing, Rikers Island, labor organizing, New York City history, pop culture and social movements. He has special interest in prison and police reform, prison and police abolition, and contemporary labor organizing. He also enjoys writing and blogging for multiple news publications and is an active presenter at various conferences.
His writing has appeared in numerous publications including The Nation, Social Justice, Race & Class, Prison Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Brooklyn Rail, Vice, Urban Omnibus, New Inquiry, Inquest, Three-Way Fight, and Gothamist.
Dr. Shanahan's research has been featured and reviewed by many publications including the New York Times, Times of London, Washington Post, Crime Media Culture, Vital City, The Metropole, Theoretical Criminology, The Journal of Urban History, Publisher's Weekly, Kirk's Reviews, New York Daily News, and the New York Post.
Before moving to Chicago, Dr. Shanahan earned a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts in Boston and a M.A. in Philosophy from New School for Social Research in New York. While at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, he earned both a master’s and a doctorate degree in Environmental Psychology.
Relevant Work:
- Author of “Every Fire Needs a Little Bit of Help: A Decade of Rebellion, Reform, and Morbid Symptoms" (PM Press, 2025)
- Author of “Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage” (Verso, 2022)
- Co-Author of “City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island” (NYU Press, 2025)
- Co-Author of “Skyscraper Jails: The Abolitionist Fight Against Jail Expansion in New York City” (Haymarket, 2025)
- Co-Author of “States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America's Punishment System” (Reaktion/Field Notes, 2022)
- Editor of “Treason to Whiteness is Loyalty to Humanity: A Noel Ignatiev Reader” (Verso, 2022)
Dr. Shanahan is available to talk about policing and incarceration, or any of the areas mentioned above. If you would like to arrange an interview with Dr. Shanahan, please contact Zion Banks, Director of Communications, 708.235.7685 or zbanks@govst.edu.