Mary K Ryan | Washington and Jefferson College (original) (raw)

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Publications by Mary K Ryan

The Activist History Review, 2019

Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 2017

This essay employs Rick Turner's Eye of the Needle, 'What is Political Philosophy?', and 'Black C... more This essay employs Rick Turner's Eye of the Needle, 'What is Political Philosophy?', and 'Black Consciousness and White Liberals' as examples in the evolution of his existential attempts to proclaim and cultivate societal reform. Specific attention is paid to his interactions with moral ideology, intellectual inspirations like Sartre and Biko, and his dual ability to function utilizing pragmatism alongside imagination. Ultimately, Turner's philosophy remains salient today, given the political challenges arising in societies around the world, urging citizens to take a fresh look at his civic demands.

Nations are becoming increasingly interconnected in the 21st century. A person’s security, health... more Nations are becoming increasingly interconnected in the 21st century. A person’s security, health, and safety are no longer limited to the plight or success of the country in which he or she is a citizen or resides. With an ever-connected international
order, the global prison industrial complex is increasingly being seen as the governmental answer to societal woes. Punishment has long been practiced in human cultures, but the global prison industrial complex presents numerous challenges to sound global order which must be examined. Corporate influence and ownership of prisons, and the governmental outsourcing of prison operations, are emerging trends with legitimate challenges to reducing violence and crime worldwide. Private prisons force countries to examine the role of prisons in modern society, but the implications of the global prison industrial complex go far beyond the prison walls. Instead of incarceration functioning as a means within its own end to control social problems, it is, ironically, becoming a social problem in its own right.

This paper will explore the origins and magnitude of the global prison industrial complex and survey the key global challenges. Criminology and sociological thought exist in four main areas which inform and influence the international evolution of prison development: international definitions for and laws regulating crime; economic motives and ramifications of the global prison industrial complex; societal customs manipulating the role of prisons; and the role of identity politics in the growth of global prison industrial complex.

Papers by Mary K Ryan

Fast Capitalism, 2020

The onset of the coronavirus created a national panic in the United States. Learning as we go thr... more The onset of the coronavirus created a national panic in the United States. Learning as we go through this new global pandemic has called for fast thinking and quick choices. Emergencies demand action. For many reasons, not the least being the need to protect against large group gatherings and keep students and faculty safe from contracting COVID-19, educational institutions, especially colleges, sent students away from their on-campus learning, living, and other activities, and shifted to online learning. As the scores of special issues make clear, how governments and institutions respond to emergencies offers vital lessons. After all, emergencies do not exist as occasions that suspend our moral principles. Quite the opposite, the way that administrators and leaders handle the unexpected, the extraordinary, and the exceptional demonstrate their true values. I suggest that neoliberalism paints the academic landscape in a way that cultivates a sense that we are being managed, but not informed. This leads people to a position of feeling like strangers who are alienated from their own choices, control over their lives, and like cogs in a machine of progress as usual without intentionality, commitment, or passion. In this way, the academic response to COVID-19 crushes people by uncivilizing them, similar to what has evolved in the prison industrial complex. Fighting neoliberal control of universities and prisons, two institutions intricately wound up in molding minds, must always be a moral challenge. The construction of strangeness reflects the role of morality (specifically through the interchange of compassion and contempt) in negotiating contemporary social and political spaces. In this essay, I first look at the ways in which moral psychology uses emotion to demarcate civil limits. Then, I outline how one major issue in social justice, the prison industrial complex, exemplifies the transformation of identity into strangeness and strangers, justifying harmful public policies. Lastly, I contemplate how theorist Lauren Berlant's philosophy of cruel optimism enables us to better understand institutional politics and individual sovereignty. Ultimately, I argue that universities must remain places for moral democracy to grow, but this demands a transition from contempt to compassion, suggesting that individual connections are the real pathway to social justice, not a reliance on institutional or structural powers. Numerous university responses to COVID-19 include teaching directives that seem to assume faculty possess equal ability to carry out their tasks. For many-especially contract/ adjunct faculty, differently-abled faculty, and women, and disproportionately women of colorthe pandemic has presented new childcare, eldercare, and homeschooling, and mental health challenges. These inequalities would likely be exacerbated by university proposals that include a hybrid or dual delivery model, where some students in a course come to a physical class and others work remotely. This echoes Wendy Brown's discussion of how neoliberalism warps social and political policy and figures citizens as rational economic actors in all spheres of their lives. Brown states that neoliberalism:

Surveillance, Race, Culture, 2018

This chapter is concerned with the rise in exclusionary practices, racism, and xenophobia in twen... more This chapter is concerned with the rise in exclusionary practices, racism, and xenophobia in twenty-first century United States (US) surveillance. In particular, this chapter seeks to understand how surveillance technologies, especially drone surveillance within US boundaries, seek to control communities of colour manifest in society and are sanctioned or commissioned by the US government as part of an evolving regime of white supremacy within a structurally racist government apparatus. Typically, drone surveillance enables federal agencies such as the CIA to monitor suspected terrorist activities in targeted countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Now, drone surveillance is breaking new ground. Local law enforcement entities use the same technology on US soil to detect and monitor citizen-led protests. The chapter explores how surveillance and race advance the theories of violence and subjugation in American life.

[Inter]sections, 2021

The 1960s were a turbulent decade in the United States. Significant social changes, especially in... more The 1960s were a turbulent decade in the United States. Significant social changes, especially in the realm of antiracism and antisexism, were afoot. Concurrently, in an echo to such dramatic social change, popular culture was also evolving. This article examines two relevant films to evaluate their ability to perform a moral critique of gender and racial politics in the 1960s. Alongside an analysis of social and political trends and Supreme Court cases, I compare two critically acclaimed industry films, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), to better understand cultural and political reforms in the 20th century.

The Activist History Review, 2019

Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 2017

This essay employs Rick Turner's Eye of the Needle, 'What is Political Philosophy?', and 'Black C... more This essay employs Rick Turner's Eye of the Needle, 'What is Political Philosophy?', and 'Black Consciousness and White Liberals' as examples in the evolution of his existential attempts to proclaim and cultivate societal reform. Specific attention is paid to his interactions with moral ideology, intellectual inspirations like Sartre and Biko, and his dual ability to function utilizing pragmatism alongside imagination. Ultimately, Turner's philosophy remains salient today, given the political challenges arising in societies around the world, urging citizens to take a fresh look at his civic demands.

Nations are becoming increasingly interconnected in the 21st century. A person’s security, health... more Nations are becoming increasingly interconnected in the 21st century. A person’s security, health, and safety are no longer limited to the plight or success of the country in which he or she is a citizen or resides. With an ever-connected international
order, the global prison industrial complex is increasingly being seen as the governmental answer to societal woes. Punishment has long been practiced in human cultures, but the global prison industrial complex presents numerous challenges to sound global order which must be examined. Corporate influence and ownership of prisons, and the governmental outsourcing of prison operations, are emerging trends with legitimate challenges to reducing violence and crime worldwide. Private prisons force countries to examine the role of prisons in modern society, but the implications of the global prison industrial complex go far beyond the prison walls. Instead of incarceration functioning as a means within its own end to control social problems, it is, ironically, becoming a social problem in its own right.

This paper will explore the origins and magnitude of the global prison industrial complex and survey the key global challenges. Criminology and sociological thought exist in four main areas which inform and influence the international evolution of prison development: international definitions for and laws regulating crime; economic motives and ramifications of the global prison industrial complex; societal customs manipulating the role of prisons; and the role of identity politics in the growth of global prison industrial complex.

Fast Capitalism, 2020

The onset of the coronavirus created a national panic in the United States. Learning as we go thr... more The onset of the coronavirus created a national panic in the United States. Learning as we go through this new global pandemic has called for fast thinking and quick choices. Emergencies demand action. For many reasons, not the least being the need to protect against large group gatherings and keep students and faculty safe from contracting COVID-19, educational institutions, especially colleges, sent students away from their on-campus learning, living, and other activities, and shifted to online learning. As the scores of special issues make clear, how governments and institutions respond to emergencies offers vital lessons. After all, emergencies do not exist as occasions that suspend our moral principles. Quite the opposite, the way that administrators and leaders handle the unexpected, the extraordinary, and the exceptional demonstrate their true values. I suggest that neoliberalism paints the academic landscape in a way that cultivates a sense that we are being managed, but not informed. This leads people to a position of feeling like strangers who are alienated from their own choices, control over their lives, and like cogs in a machine of progress as usual without intentionality, commitment, or passion. In this way, the academic response to COVID-19 crushes people by uncivilizing them, similar to what has evolved in the prison industrial complex. Fighting neoliberal control of universities and prisons, two institutions intricately wound up in molding minds, must always be a moral challenge. The construction of strangeness reflects the role of morality (specifically through the interchange of compassion and contempt) in negotiating contemporary social and political spaces. In this essay, I first look at the ways in which moral psychology uses emotion to demarcate civil limits. Then, I outline how one major issue in social justice, the prison industrial complex, exemplifies the transformation of identity into strangeness and strangers, justifying harmful public policies. Lastly, I contemplate how theorist Lauren Berlant's philosophy of cruel optimism enables us to better understand institutional politics and individual sovereignty. Ultimately, I argue that universities must remain places for moral democracy to grow, but this demands a transition from contempt to compassion, suggesting that individual connections are the real pathway to social justice, not a reliance on institutional or structural powers. Numerous university responses to COVID-19 include teaching directives that seem to assume faculty possess equal ability to carry out their tasks. For many-especially contract/ adjunct faculty, differently-abled faculty, and women, and disproportionately women of colorthe pandemic has presented new childcare, eldercare, and homeschooling, and mental health challenges. These inequalities would likely be exacerbated by university proposals that include a hybrid or dual delivery model, where some students in a course come to a physical class and others work remotely. This echoes Wendy Brown's discussion of how neoliberalism warps social and political policy and figures citizens as rational economic actors in all spheres of their lives. Brown states that neoliberalism:

Surveillance, Race, Culture, 2018

This chapter is concerned with the rise in exclusionary practices, racism, and xenophobia in twen... more This chapter is concerned with the rise in exclusionary practices, racism, and xenophobia in twenty-first century United States (US) surveillance. In particular, this chapter seeks to understand how surveillance technologies, especially drone surveillance within US boundaries, seek to control communities of colour manifest in society and are sanctioned or commissioned by the US government as part of an evolving regime of white supremacy within a structurally racist government apparatus. Typically, drone surveillance enables federal agencies such as the CIA to monitor suspected terrorist activities in targeted countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Now, drone surveillance is breaking new ground. Local law enforcement entities use the same technology on US soil to detect and monitor citizen-led protests. The chapter explores how surveillance and race advance the theories of violence and subjugation in American life.

[Inter]sections, 2021

The 1960s were a turbulent decade in the United States. Significant social changes, especially in... more The 1960s were a turbulent decade in the United States. Significant social changes, especially in the realm of antiracism and antisexism, were afoot. Concurrently, in an echo to such dramatic social change, popular culture was also evolving. This article examines two relevant films to evaluate their ability to perform a moral critique of gender and racial politics in the 1960s. Alongside an analysis of social and political trends and Supreme Court cases, I compare two critically acclaimed industry films, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), to better understand cultural and political reforms in the 20th century.