Francis Bruce Prior, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Sociology and Criminology
Degrees Earned
PhD in Sociology University of Pennsylvania: 2016
MA in Sociology University of Pennsylvania 2011
BA in Philosophy Villanova University 2009
Undergraduate Courses Taught
Criminology
Criminology Internship I & II
Deviant Behavior
Principles of Sociology
Social Problems
Sociology of Punishment
Sociology of Urban Life
Publications & Editorships
Prior, Francis, Steve Farough. 2022. “Struggling to Make Good: The Dilemmas of Fatherhood for Formerly Incarcerated African American Men” Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology 11(1).
2021 “Urban Neoliberal Debt Peonage: Prisoner Reentry, Work, and the New Jim Crow.” Social Currents. Online First Feb 5.
2020. “Security Culture: Surveillance and Responsibilization in a Prisoner Reentry Organization.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 49(3).
2017. Book Review. “From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America.” Contemporary Sociology 46(5).
2014. “Quality Controlled: An Ethnographic Account of Tea Party Messaging and Action.” Sociological Forum 29(2)
Presentations
Roundtable at American Sociological Association 2021: Struggling to Make Good: The Dilemmas of Fatherhood for Low-Income Formerly Incarcerated African American Men
Roundtable at American Sociological Association 2018: “Downward Occupational Mobility: Collateral consequences of a criminal Record in Working Class Service Sector Employment”
Panel at Society for the Study of Social Problems 2018: “Prisoner Reentry as a Pathway to Deskilled Service Work Among Men with Working Class Human Capital”
Panel at Incarcerating Women and Girls 2018: “Interviews with Formerly Incarcerated Women”
Panel at Eastern Sociological Society 2018: “Redemption, Responsibilization, and Surveillance: Prisoner Reentry in a State-Run Street Level Bureaucracy”
Roundtable at American Society of Criminology 2015: “Prisoner Reentry: The Myth of Public Safety, Employment, and Legitimating Urban Governance”
Roundtable at American Sociological Association 2015: “New American Populism: Tea Party and Occupy in Ethnographic and Rhetorical Comparison,” with Shantee Rosado.
Roundtable at American Sociological Association 2015: “Cohesion of Security, Surveillance, and Service Provision in a Prisoner Reentry Organization.”
Presentation at Penn Urban Ethnography Workshop 2015: “Afterward: Service Provision Post-Release and the Mark of a Criminal Record.”
Panel at American Anthropological Association 2014: Prisoner Reentry: An Ethnographic Account of Service Provision and Social Insecurity.”
Panel at Mid-Atlantic Law and Society 2014: “Teaching the Sociology of Punishment at Elite Universities.”
Panel at Eastern Sociological Society 2014: “New American Populism: The Tea Party Movement and Occupy in Comparison,” with Shantee Rosado.
Roundtable at American Sociological Association 2012: “The Tea Party Movement: Struggles in Frame Vulnerability and Micromobilization.”
Panel at Eastern Sociological Society 2011: “The Tea Party Movement: Frames and Micromobilization.”
Poster Session at Eastern Sociological Society 2008: “The Effect of Progressive Politics on Unionization Rates.”
Grants and Awards
Russell Sage Foundation, Pipeline Grant: “Debt Peonage: How Formerly Incarcerated Fathers Experience Child Support and Criminal Justice Debt.” (2022) $30,000 Primary Investigator.
Assumption University, Faculty Development Grant “Debt Peonage: How Formerly Incarcerated Fathers Experience Child Support and Criminal Justice Debt.” (2022) $3500
Assumption University, D’Amour College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Summer Scholars Research Program, “Debt Peonage: How Formerly Incarcerated Fathers Experience Child support and Criminal Justice Debt.” (2022) $5000 to support an undergraduate researcher.
Mississippi State University, Strategic Research Initiative: Race and Racism Research, “Debt Peonage and the New Jim Crow: Experiences of Justice System-Involved Fathers with Child Support and Criminal Justice Debt” (2022) $9,995 Co-PI with Stacy Haynes.
Assumption University, Faculty Development Grant for creation of Sociology of Punishment course (2018) $3,000
Faculty Development Grant: Curriculum Development for Sociology of Punishment
Graduate Student Fellowship: 2009-2014.
Critical Writing Graduate Teaching Fellowship: 2014-2015.
Professional Service
Referee for American Sociological Review 2022
Referee for Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology 2021
Faculty Development Committee Fall 2017-Spring 2019
Faculty Senate Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020-present
Secretary for Faculty Senate: Fall 2020, Fall 2021-present
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee Fall 2021-present
Assessment Committee Fall 2021-present
Core Curriculum Committee 2019-Spring 2022
Commencement Committee Spring 2020-present
First Year Book Committee Spring 2022-present
Credo First Year Experience Committee Spring 2022-present
Public Safety Committee Fall 2021-Spring 2022
Admissions Open House events Fall 2018, Spring 2019 March 21, Fall 2020 Oct 6, Nov 11, Spring 2021 Feb 15, Fall 2021 October 23, Spring 2022 January 22
Admissions Mock Sociology Classroom Back up facilitator Spring 2021
Student Case manager COVID-19 Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021
Summer Preview Day 2019
Session on Racial Microaggressions: Student Orientation Fall 2017
Student Recruit Back Winter 2020, Summer 2021