Dr. Rita Shah (she/her/hers) is a Fulbright Scholar and cultural criminologist who combines textual analysis with qualitative and visual methods to understand the ways in which correctional systems are socially and legally constructed. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Criminology and Probation Journal and has been supported by National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation grants. Her most recent book, The Meaning of Rehabilitation and its Impact on Parole: There and Back Again in California (2017), queries the concept of “rehabilitation” to determine how, on a legislative and policy level, the term is defined as a goal of correctional systems. She received her BA in communications, legal institutions, economics and government from American University and her MA in social ecology and PhD in criminology, law and society from the University of California, Irvine. She is also an amateur photographer. You can learn more about her academic and photographic work at her website: ritashahphd.com.