Working PhD Title: Forging Selfhood: Masculinity, Identity, and Work in Arizona’s Inmate Wildfire Program
Research Interests: Cultural criminology, masculinity, identity, justice studies, gender and sexuality, anthropology of emotions, ethnography of prison, critical social theory
Brief Biography
I am a native Tucsonan. After graduating with a B.A. in medical anthropology, I began working at Old Pueblo Community Services in Tucson, running a mentoring program for men and women being released from prison. This job led me to return to graduate school, seeking answers about the modern experience of incarceration in academia. I remained committed to this organization through graduate school, as member and President of the Board of Directors for six years.
M.A.
Before focusing on the topic of prison labor for my doctoral dissertation, I broadened my theoretical interests by examining the link between work and identity in a ranching valley of southern Arizona. I worked closely with my advisor, Dr. Tom Sheridan, and the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance to conduct several life history studies with ranchers and cowboys, examining modern forms of ranch work. I explored how this risky, dialogically masculine, and economically uncertain lifeway influences a more complex set of group and individual identities than are typically recognized. In addition to producing a master's thesis, I created a life-history resource for the Altar Valley community.
Research and Teaching Experience
I worked for 4 years as a Research Assistant for the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology under Dr. Diane Austin as the data manager for the offshore oil and gas history project. I gained experience with various qualitative data analysis software, and honed my organizational skills, managing the data of several undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, and faculty fieldworkers. I also conducted six weeks of fieldwork in southern Louisiana in the summer of 2013, as part of the project studying the social affects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. From 2014-present, I have worked as a Teaching Assistant and an Instructor of record, most recently creating the syllabus and being the sole instructor for a mixed undergraduate/graduate course titled Gender and Social Identity.
PhD
My dissertation topic broadly questions the role of skilled prison labor in the era of mass incarceration. I am using the Inmate Wildfire Program offered by the Arizona Department of Corrections as a case study in order to examine the experiential paradox of skilled labor in the carceral era. The individuals who participate in this program are offered little pay for risky work, and have very limited chances of continuing this career on the outside. Yet simultaneously, the daily work of firefighting is very meaningful for incarcerated individuals. These meaningful experiences echo previous penal ideologies of rehabilitation, and offer a resistance to the social death of incarceration. One way this occurs is through the expression of inclusive, non-racial masculinities on the fire crew, which defies the violence of the modern prison experience. This dissertation allows me to draw on many of the theoretical themes of my master's thesis (risk, masculinity, landscape, work) while incorporating my theoretical and applied interests in the experience of incarceration for those who live it daily.
Curriculum Vitae and Academic Profile
Publications
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles:
Feldman, Lindsey. 2017. Forged Selfhood: Social Categorization and Identity in Arizona’s Inmate Wildfire Program. Under Review, Howard Journal of Crime and Justice.
Feldman, Lindsey and Luminita Mandache. 2017. People Without Numbers: EmotionalAnthropology In the Quantitative Era. Under Review, Ethnography.
Feldman, Lindsey. 2016. Good Hands and True Grit: Making a Ranching Identity Work in the Altar Valley. Journal of the Southwest, 58:1
Book Chapters and Bibliographies:
Simmons, William and Lindsey Feldman. 2017. “Ethnographic Approaches: Lived Experiences.” In: Research Methods in Human Rights.Smith, Rhona, ed. NY: Routledge.
Feldman, Lindsey. “Prison Labor” in: Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology, Oxford University Press. Accepted, expected release date September 2017.
Policy and Agency Reports:
The History and Experiences of the Inmate Wildfire Program: A Policy Report prepared for by Lindsey Feldman for the Arizona Department of Corrections. February 2017.
History Based Education Package prepared by Lindsey Feldman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. December 2013.
Other Publications:
Feldman, Lindsey. “Coda: From an incarcerated firefighter.” Crime, Media, Culture. Accepted, expected release date December 2017.
Feldman, Lindsey. Fighting a wildfire on a gun range, or, the sensuous memories of fieldwork. Allegra Laboratory, February 2017.
Feldman, Lindsey. Arizona's Inmate Firefighters. SAPIENS Magazine, July 2016
Feldman, Lindsey. Hot Felons: Branding Jeremy Meeks, Part 1 and 2, PopAnth, August 2014
Feldman, Lindsey and Christopher Lirette. New Adventures In Tandem Ethnography, Southern Spaces, October 2013
Media:
“Labor, Identity, and State Politics.” Anthropologist on the Street Podcast. Recorded, release date September 2017.
“On the line, Firefighters Incarcerated and Free Share the Same Goal.” National Public Radio. Interview, Here and Now Arizona. September 2016.
“Q+A With Lindsey Raisa Feldman, Sociocultural Anthropologist and Photographer.” Be Your Own Muse, April 2016
Feldman, Lindsey. 2017. Forged Selfhood: Social Categorization and Identity in Arizona’s Inmate Wildfire Program. Under Review, Howard Journal of Crime and Justice.
Feldman, Lindsey and Luminita Mandache. 2017. People Without Numbers: EmotionalAnthropology In the Quantitative Era. Under Review, Ethnography.
Feldman, Lindsey. 2016. Good Hands and True Grit: Making a Ranching Identity Work in the Altar Valley. Journal of the Southwest, 58:1
Book Chapters and Bibliographies:
Simmons, William and Lindsey Feldman. 2017. “Ethnographic Approaches: Lived Experiences.” In: Research Methods in Human Rights.Smith, Rhona, ed. NY: Routledge.
Feldman, Lindsey. “Prison Labor” in: Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology, Oxford University Press. Accepted, expected release date September 2017.
Policy and Agency Reports:
The History and Experiences of the Inmate Wildfire Program: A Policy Report prepared for by Lindsey Feldman for the Arizona Department of Corrections. February 2017.
History Based Education Package prepared by Lindsey Feldman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. December 2013.
Other Publications:
Feldman, Lindsey. “Coda: From an incarcerated firefighter.” Crime, Media, Culture. Accepted, expected release date December 2017.
Feldman, Lindsey. Fighting a wildfire on a gun range, or, the sensuous memories of fieldwork. Allegra Laboratory, February 2017.
Feldman, Lindsey. Arizona's Inmate Firefighters. SAPIENS Magazine, July 2016
Feldman, Lindsey. Hot Felons: Branding Jeremy Meeks, Part 1 and 2, PopAnth, August 2014
Feldman, Lindsey and Christopher Lirette. New Adventures In Tandem Ethnography, Southern Spaces, October 2013
Media:
“Labor, Identity, and State Politics.” Anthropologist on the Street Podcast. Recorded, release date September 2017.
“On the line, Firefighters Incarcerated and Free Share the Same Goal.” National Public Radio. Interview, Here and Now Arizona. September 2016.
“Q+A With Lindsey Raisa Feldman, Sociocultural Anthropologist and Photographer.” Be Your Own Muse, April 2016
