Michaela Soyer

Postdoctoral Scholar Alumni
Soyer Headshot

Biography:

Michaela Soyer received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Based on three years of ethnographic fieldwork with juvenile offenders in Boston and Chicago, her dissertation argues that successful resistance is tied to the teenagers’ ability to experience themselves as creative and autonomous actors. Michaela’s future work will continue to focus on the transition from adolescence to adulthood with a particular emphasis on how teenagers successfully age out of deviant behavior. In her research, Michaela aspires to enrich contemporary criminological theories with classic sociological approaches to social action and punishment. Articles based on her dissertation research are forthcoming in the British Journal of Criminology and Qualitative Research. Prior to her graduate work in the United States, Michaela received her Masters degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a B.A. from the University of Applied Arts and Sciences in Hannover, Germany.

Aside from her research on juvenile delinquency, Michaela is interested in collective action in repressive regimes. An article based on her work on resistance in Jewish Ghettos during World War II is forthcoming in Mobilization.

Michaela has joined the Department of Sociology at Hunter College as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Soyer will continue her collaboration with the Justice Center on the PINS and TC-PINS projects.