Dr. Matthew H. McLeskey is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in the Department of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York at Oswego. He recently finished his Ph.D. in sociology with expertise in critical criminology, urban studies, and intersectional inequalities at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was an Advanced Dissertation Fellow at the Humanities Institute and a Research Assistant in the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy in the School of Law. During his time in Buffalo, he was also a lecturer at two other SUNY institutions, Buffalo State College and Niagara County Community College. Broadly speaking, his research interrogates how the relationship between medical institutions and the criminal justice system reproduces numerous inequalities in urban contexts. He currently focuses on how America’s lead poisoning epidemic caused by dilapidated housing in disinvested, often segregated neighborhoods(re)produces racial health disparities, hinders neighborhood community well-being and housing security, and ultimately contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline.
Research
Research Interests: urban inequalities, green criminology, environmental justice, mass incarceration, deviant behavior, social and criminological theory
Publications
Under Review: McLeskey, Matthew H. “Poison in the Walls: How the Threat of Lead Exposure Contributes to Housing Insecurity in Impoverished Communities.”
Forthcoming: McLeskey, Matthew H. “Healthy Housing is Public Health: How Landlords Struggle to Contain America’s Lead Poisoning Crisis,” in Essays on The Sociology of Housing: An Edited Volume, edited by Brian McCabe and Eva Rosen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2021; Matthew H. McLeskey. “Lead Exposure in U.S. Cities.” The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures. Ed. Robert C. Brears. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-51812-7_293-1]
2021; McLeskey, Matthew H. Film Review of Flint: Poisoning of an American City by David Barhart, Teaching Sociology 49(1): 107-109.[DOI: 10.1177/0092055X20983322]
2020; Hammond, Jake, Megan Nanney, and Matthew H. McLeskey. “Resources for Graduate Students during COVID-19.” Graduate Student Concerns Committee, American Sociological Association Teaching & Learning Section.
2019; McLeskey, Matthew H. “The Unpredictability of the Land beneath Your Feet.” Book Review of Manufactured Insecurity: Mobile Home Parks and Americans’ Tenuous Right to Place by Esther Sullivan, City: Critical Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 23(6): 803-807. [DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2020.1721156]
2018; Mele, Christopher, and Matthew H. McLeskey. “Pro-Growth Urban Politics and the Inner Workings of Public-Private Partnerships.” Pp. 62-69 in in The Routledge Handbook on Spaces of Urban Politics, edited by Kevin Ward, Andrew E.G. Jonas, Byron Miller, and David Wilson. New York: Routledge.
Conferences
Invited Talks:
2022 “The Epidemiological Context of the Affordable Housing Crisis.”Conversations in Conflict Studies Series, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.
Conference Presentations:
2022 “Embedded and Embodied: Urban Decline and the Social Costs of Lead Poisoning Exposure.” Paper Presentation: American Society for Criminology Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
2021 “Poison in the Walls: How the Threat of Lead Exposure Contributes to Housing Insecurity in Impoverished Communities.” Virtual Presentation: North Central Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Grand Rapids, MI. [Paper accepted for presentation; conference panel held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic.]
2020 “Epidemiological Causes and Consequences of Territorial Stigmatization.” Virtual Presentation: 11th International Conference on Stigma, Washington, D.C. [Paper accepted for presentation; conference held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic.]
2020 “Lead Poisoning: A Case of the Embodiment of Place-Based Inequalities.” Paper Presentation: Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. [Paper accepted for presentation; conference cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.]
2019 “How Does Lead Poisoning Contribute to Urban Inequality?”Paper Presentation: American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Community & Urban Sociology Section Pre-Conference: Inequalities & Social Justice in the 21st Century, New York City, NY.
Awards and honors
2022-23 Early Start Program Fellowship, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
State University of New York at Oswego ($5,000)
2021 “New Scholars in Law and Social Policy at UB: Graduate Student Profiles.”
The Baldy Center Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 2, Spring 2021.
The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, UB School of Law.
[http://www.buffalo.edu/baldycenter/multimedia/magazine-2021.host.html/co...]
2020 Best Scientific Abstract Award
11th International Conference on Stigma, Howard University,
Washington, D.C. ($500)
2020 Dissertation Presenter, College of Arts & Sciences Student Representative
Celebration of Student Academic Excellence,
State University of New York at Buffalo
2019-20 Advanced Dissertation Fellowship
Humanities Institute, State University of New York at Buffalo ($6,000)
2018-20 Mark Diamond Research Fund
Graduate Student Association,
State University of New York at Buffalo ($3,000)
Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Buffalo ($500)
2019 The Lee Student Support Fund Award
The Society for the Study of Social Problems ($75)
2018 SAGE Teaching Innovations and Professional Development Award
American Sociological Association Teaching & Learning Section ($600)
Education
2022 Ph.D., Sociology
Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Buffalo (UB)
2020 Graduate Certificate, Center for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL@UB)
2015 M.A., Sociology, State University of New York at Buffalo
2011 M.A., English Literature, James Madison University
2009 B.A., Honors Program, Davis & Elkins College
Classes taught
CRJ 300: Special Topics: Environmental Justice
CRJ 333: Crime Theories & Victimization
CRJ 347: Crime & Society
CRJ 385: Drugs & Crime