EDUCATION
Ph.D. Sociology, 2016
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
M. Phil. Graduate Center, City University of New York, 2011 M. A. Fordham University; B. A. Ohio University.
Academic Positions
2018-Present: Assistant Professor, Penn State University, Greater Allegheny, Pa
2017-2018 – Visiting Assistant Professor, Penn State University, Berks, PA
2016-2017 – Visiting Assistant Professor, Loyola University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
2008-2016 – Lecturer, City University of New York, Hunter College (CUNY), NY
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Submitted
2025. Sandra L. Trappen. Undead Life: Structural Injury and the Governance of Harm in Postindustrial America, Contemporary Drug Problems.
2025. Sandra L. Trappen. Insured Harm: Violence Without Spectacle, Harm Without Witness, The Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime.
2025. When Harm Becomes Value: Weaponized Belonging in American Gun Culture, Theory, Culture & Society.
2025. Sandra L. Trappen, Cristina Figueroa, Ethan Galley, and Bobur Rakhmatullaev. Trauma-Informed Corrections and Probation Practice: ACEs, Vicarious Trauma, and Organizational Reform, The Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.
2025. Sandra L. Trappen. Camouflage Economy: From Counterinsurgency to Weaponized Intimacy, Social Text.
Published Peer-reviewed/refereed articles
2021. (2022) Taking Stock: A Scoping Review of Research in Criminal Justice Education, Journal of Criminal Justice Education, DOI: 10.1080/10511253.2022.2155203
2021. Sandra L. Trappen and Katherine J. McLean “Policing Pain: a qualitative study of non-criminal justice approaches to managing opioid overdose during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community. Vol. 49, Issue 2, 2021.
2017. Sandra L. Trappen “Knowledge is for Cutting: Waging War on the Human Terrain.” TransMissions: Journal of Film and Media Studies. September 30, 2017, Vol 2; pp. 100-116. Note: this article was originally published in TransMissions: Journal of Film and Media Studies. The journal is now inactive; self‑archived for accessibility.
2013. Sandra L. Trappen and Patricia Clough (Eds.) “Mayberry R.F.D. Will Not Be Presented Tonight.” Social Text Periscope, Spring, 2013.
2013. “Always at War: Economy, Labor, Life, and Blood.” Sandra L. Trappen and Patricia Clough (Eds.). Social Text Online, Spring 20213.
Reviews
2018. Sandra Trappen. Review of “The Frankfurt School in the 21st Century,” by Diana Boros and James M. Glass (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014). Perspectives on Politics, Vol 16, Issue 1, January 2018.
Edited Collections
2018. Trappen, Sandra L., Veterans and Disability In. (Heller, T., Parker Harris, S., Gill, C. and Gould, R. (Eds.) Disability in American Life: An Encyclopedia of Policies, Concepts, and Controversies. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. July 31, 2018.
Online & Social Media
2013. “War and Disability.” Sandra L. Trappen. Feminist Wire. November 25.
MEDIA
2020. Guest panelist on “Self-Medicated” Podcast. Recurring podcast produced by radio personality, Murf Meyer. Program discussed how economic inequalities play a role in mental health, generational addiction, and the criminal justice system.
2016. Guest panelist on “Open Dialogue” – a discussion panel show produced by Accessible Media Inc.,(AMI) of Toronto, Canada. AMI is a multimedia organization, whose mission is to provide programming for Canadians who are blind, partially sighted, deaf, hard of hearing, mobility or print restricted. The program’s focus was on war and disability. Panelists were invited to discuss the physical and mental challenges soldiers face in combat, the injuries they sustain, and the barriers they face when returning home. Broadcast date: October 2016.
EDITORIAL SERVICE
Women and Criminal Justice (2023-present)
Journal of Criminal Justice Education (2023-present)
Violence & Victims (2020-present) Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community (2021-present)
FELLOWHIPS, GRANTS, AWARDS, RECOGNITION
2021 Penn State Student Engagement Network Grant – $12,000 2021 Penn State Criminal Justice Research Center (CJRC) & Commonwealth Campus Center Nodes (C3N) Grant- $4,635
2021 Penn State Community Fellows: Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse Grant – $3,000
2020 Penn State TTIP/Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence Grant – $2,000
2020 Penn State Community Fellows Program, Penn State University Grant – $3,000
SELECTED ACADEMIC SERVICE
2021 – present: Teaching International & Sustainability Committee Chair
2020 – 2022: Equal Opportunity Planning Commission (EOPC), committee member. 2020 – 2021: Racial Equity Task force
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
2023 Trauma Informed Response Training, SAMSHA; Train the Trainer training
2017 eLearning Academy, Penn State Berks – hybrid/online course development
2014 Visual Research Methods, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
ACADEMIC CONFERENCE ACTIVITY
Papers Presented
Academy of Criminal Justice Studies Annual Meeting, March 2024. Paper: “Punishing Trauma: An Exploratory Study of the Childhood Trauma & Victimization of U.S. Probation and Pretrial Officers.”
Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators, Annual Conference, April 2024. Paper: “Towards a Trauma Informed Care Approach to Probation Management: A Qualitative Study.”
Sixth Contemporary Drug Problems Conference. La Trobe University & the Journal of Contemporary Drug Problems, Paris, France, September 2023. Paper: “Weapon-Body-Drug Assemblages: Theorizing the effects of aggressive policing within the context of the U.S. war on drugs.”
9th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference. University of Trento, Trento, Italy. June 2023. Panel Organizer: “Public Health in the Post-COVID era.” Paper: “The McKeesport Drug Overdose Project: Addressing the Intersection of Overdose, Crime, and Community.”
American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. August 2021. Paper: “Using Student-centered Learning to Disrupt the School to Military to Prison Pipeline.”
8th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference, Bergamo, Italy. June 2020. Chair/Presenter: Panel: “Public Health Interventions: Global Problems, Local Solutions.” Paper: “Policing Pain: A Qualitative Research Intervention in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.”
The American Society of Criminology (ASC), Chicago, Illinois, November 2020. Paper: “Addressing overdose amidst alienation: The McKeesport Overdose Prevention Education Project.”
The American Society of Criminology (ASC), Atlanta, Ga, November 2018
Paper: “Guns, Drugs, and the War at Home.”
7th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference, Bergamo, Italy. June 2018. Paper: “Knowledge Wars: The University Must Be Defended.”
Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (CSA), Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. May 31–June 2, 2018.
Presenter: “Blood, Bullets, and Bodies: The Deer Hunter’s Political Economy of Violence”
The American Society of Criminology (ASC), Philadelphia, Pa, November 2017. Presenter: “Firearms, College Students, and Social Identity”
Cultural Studies Association (CSA), Policing Crises Now. Villanova University, Philadelphia, Pa, June 2016.
Paper: “Middle-Range Theories and Long-Range Missiles: Science as Performance”
Crossroads Conference, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland, July 2014. Paper: “War and Remains: Digital Ethnography, Self-Making, and the Embodied Contradictions of War.”
Gender, Bodies & Technology: Performing the Human, May 2014, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA.
Paper: “Making War, Making Bodies”
SSSP Annual Meeting, August 2013, New York, NY
Paper: “War, Medical Normalization, and Disability”
Minding the Body Conference, Graduate Center, CUNY, March 2013, New York, NY. Paper: “The Body as the Scene of War”
Eastern Sociological Society Meeting, March 2013, Boston, MA
Paper: “Ethical Issues & Military Research: Research Methods and the Human Terrain”
International Conference on The Body, Graduate Center, CUNY, April 2011, New York, NY
Paper: “War, Traumatic Injury and Embodied Conflict”
Cultural Studies Association Annual Meeting, March 2011, Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois
Paper: “Technoscience as Fetish: Making Weapons and Bodies”
Cultural Studies Association Annual Meeting, March 2010, University of California, Berkeley
Paper: “The Body at War: Between Discipline and Biopolitics”
Eastern Sociological Society Meeting, Military Sub-conference, March 23, 2013, Boston, MA
Panel Discussant: “Micro to Macro Military Issues”
Eastern Sociological Society Meeting, March 22, 2009, Baltimore, Maryland
Panel Discussant: “Military and Health”
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Society of Criminology
American Sociological Association
LANGUAGES
Italian, German
CAREER EXPERIENCE
1990 – 2004: Managerial, operations, sales, and marketing roles for Fortune 100 listed companies, including Baxter Healthcare Corp., Cigna, United Healthcare, and BAE Systems.
MILITARY
U.S. Army: Captain, 22nd Area Support Group, Southern European Task Force, Vicenza, Italy, 1986-1989. Defense Logistics Management for Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the Sinai.
U.S. Army: Lieutenant, 5th Signal Command, Vicenza, Italy: Signals Intelligence, Cryptography, Intelligence Data Collection Management.
U.S. Government Security Clearance: Secret/Clearable (2013)
KEYWORDS
Sociology, Criminology, Policing, Trauma-informed Criminal Justice, Police stress, Police mental health, Social Determinants of Health, ACEs.