Clay Michael Awsumb

Assistant Professor of Criminology

Education

• 2016 MA Sociology SIU Edwardsville
• 2010 BA Sociology SIU Edwardsville
• 2006 AAPS Digital Photography Harrington College

Courses Taught

• 46210 / 35321 Introduction to Criminology
• 46302 / 35375 Police and Society
• 46315 / 35323 Deviance and Deviant Behavior
• 46317 Contemporary Issues in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• 46405 / 35405 Victimology
• 46475 Applied Criminology
• 46495 Internship in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• 46499 Research Seminar in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Doing Criminology: futures in practice, praxis, policy, and publics)

Academic Interests

I am a sociologist and critical criminologist studying power, control, state crimes, and resistance. I focus on intersectional and subjective dimensions of power and political agency in practices or praxes of power. I use primarily qualitative research methods, case-studies, and ethnography, along with participatory-, community-, visual-arts-, and preforming-arts-based methods in my research. I am developing my work through two transformative justice aligned lines of research: one, focused on the experiences and resistances of those victimized by crimes of power and states and, a second focused on the harms and crimes created by the uses of power by states and powerful actors.

Research

In this first line of my work, my research is focused on learning from and in collaboration with marginalized persons and groups – their praxes of power. I explore how groups and organizations construct and employ community, political mobilization, collective action, and resistance in response to injustice, inequality, and crimes of the powerful. I study these as a victimology of state crime / crimes of power, too – exploring victimization experiences as well as how victims respond to their victimization through community, resilience, art, resistance, and collective action. In my second line of research, I investigate the crimes and harms of states and other powerful actors. I explore mechanisms and mechanics of state crimes / crimes of power by studying the institutional and ideological practices of states and other powerful actors. In this research I focus on portraying and explaining the criminal, injurious, and unjust uses of governmentality (e.g., ideology, ritual, bureaucracy, securitization, secrecy), repression (e.g., censorship, othering, criminalization, carcerality), and violence (e.g., state-sponsored violence, human rights violations, armed conflict, structural violence) routinely used by states and other powerful actors.

Scholarly Activity

Publications:

• Kauzlarich, David and Clay Michael Awsumb. “Confronting State Oppression: The Role of Music,” pp. 517-528 in Walter S. DeKeseredy and Molly Dragiewicz (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Critical Criminology, 2nd ed., Routledge Publishing. (2018)
• Kauzlarich, David and Clay Michael Awsumb. “Resisting State Violence: The Role of Music,” pp. 501-512 in Walter S. DeKeseredy and Molly Dragiewicz (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Critical Criminology, Routledge Publishing. (2011)

Selected Conference Presentations:

• “Dissent, Transgress, Subvert: transformative potential of expressive, performative, and participatory art in resistance to crimes of the powerful.” Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting, August 6 – 11, Chicago, IL. (2025)
• “Taking or Making Photographic Data: Methodological Implications in Mechanical Effects of Focal Length and Aperture.” American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, November 13 – 16, San Francisco, CA. (2024)
• “Mobilizing Cultures, Community Action Toolkits, and Rules of Resistance against Crimes of the Powerful.” Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting, August 9-11, Montréal, Canada. (2024)
•  “Joining the Mutual Aid Community Movement: Participatory Action Research as Praxis in the Mutual Aid Community Movement." Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting, August 9-11, Montréal, Canada. (2024)
• “Resistance as Transformative Praxis of Power.” American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, November 15-18, Philadelphia, PA. (2023)
• “Community Organizers, Vocabularies of Motive, and Accounting for Organizing Styles of Community-based Advocacy Organizations.” Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting, August 18-20, Philadelphia, PA. (2023)
• “Beyond Resistance: accounting for intersectional, multiple, and contradictory qualities in the praxis of power.” American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, November 16 – 19, Atlanta, GA. (2022)
• “Community Organizers, Collective Action Frames, Mobilizing Cultures, and Repertoires of Collective Action: culture as a factor shaping the characteristics of community-based organizations.” Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting, August 5 – 7, Los Angeles, CA. (2022)
• “A Gap Between Theory and Praxis: how organizers construct the power and politics of community-based organizations as a practical link between political theory and the praxis of power.” Justice Studies Association Annual Meeting, June 2 – 4, Virtual Meeting. (2022)

Other Professional Experiences

•  Editorial Board, Institutional Ethnography Journal; 2024 – Present
• Membership Chair, Executive Board. Justice Studies Association; 2024 – Present
• Chair. Conflict, Social Action, and Change Division, Society for the Study of Social Problems; 2023 – 2025

Selected Fellowships and Honors:

• J. Mark Wehrle Dissertation Scholarship in Sociology, Department of Sociology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Awarded December 2020.
• Outstanding Service Award, Graduate and Professional Student Council, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Awarded August 2020.
• Graduate Student Paper Competition Award, Illinois Sociological Association. “Unpacking the Complexities in Meanings of Racism and Racist.” Illinois Sociological Association Annual Conference, November 20, North Park University, Chicago, IL.