Earl Smith (Wake Forest): Way Down in The Hole: Race in Solitary Confinement

Credit Earl Smith

This lecture was part of the International Symposium on Solitary Confinement held November 5-6, 2020 and sponsored by The Office of the Provost of Thomas Jefferson University. Earl Smith, PhD, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of American Ethnic Studies and Sociology at Wake Forest University, and is currently teaching classes in Sociology, African and African American Studies, and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Delaware. Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut. His teaching and research focus on the sociology of sport, social stratification, and the intersection of race and the criminal justice system. He is the author of 12 books, including his most recent books, Gender, Power and Violence (2019), and Policing Black Bodies (2018). Currently he is finishing the book Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement (2021). The book is based on three summers of ethnographic research in a large state penitentiary system. Methodologically, we conducted over 100 face-to-face interviews with inmates and correctional officers.

Special Thanks to Earl Smith for this presentation on solitary confinement.

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