Samantha Simon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.  Using ethnographic and qualitative methods, her research focuses on violence, gender, race, and organizational inequality.  Her current book project is based on one year of ethnographic field work at four police training academies.  In her book, she examines how the hiring and training at police academies emphasizes the use of violence, focusing on the ways that gender and race inform these processes.

Simon's research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Association for University Women, among others.  She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvannia.