Judith Ryder

Background

About Judith Ryder

As a scholar and a committed teacher and mentor, I maintain a multidisciplinary and collaborative research agenda that focuses on female delinquency and crime, trauma and violence, and the social construction of substance abuse, each of which is linked to the escalating global population of system-involved women and girls. In my research and through my teaching, I seek to understand connections between individual vulnerabilities and structural inequalities so that new possibilities can be envisioned. I believe it is critical that theoretical and empirical findings be translated into policies and practices useful to the communities most affected. As a producer of social scientific knowledge, I realize one has the power to participate in the transformation of our reality. To this end I established the Inside-Out Prison Project at St. John’s within the Office of the Provost. At the core of the Project is an experiential course that brings together university students to study as peers with incarcerated individuals. The Inside-Out Project at St. John’s is affiliated with the national Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and offers a practical way to engage with diverse others, reflect on sources of social divisions, and learn to collaborate on possible solutions. In retirement, I continue to work with the university in support of higher education programming for both incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.