FMI Public Speaker Series — November 9
The Puzzle of Prison Order
Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World
David Skarbek — Brown University
The Free Market Institute (FMI) will host David Skarbek, Professor of Political Science and Political Economy at Brown University, to present a public lecture at Texas Tech University based on his book The Puzzle of Prison Order: Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World (Oxford University Press). The program will take place in the International Cultural Center (ICC) – Auditorium, (601 Indiana Avenue, Lubbock, TX 79409), from 5:30 – 6:30 PM on Thursday, November 9, 2023.
Dr. Skarbek will also be available for a book signing from 4:45-5:15 PM prior to the public lecture. Copies of his book will be available for purchase starting at 4:30 PM.
While many people think prisons are all the same—rows of cells filled with violent men who officials rule with an iron fist, life behind bars varies in incredible ways.
Drawing on theories from political economy and a vast empirical literature on prison systems, Dr. Skarbek offers a framework for understanding how social order evolves and takes root behind bars, in The Puzzle of Prison Order: Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World (Oxford University Press).
The event is free and open to the TTU community and the general public.
About the Speaker
David Skarbek is Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and Professor of Political Science and Political Economy at Brown University. His research examines how extralegal governance institutions form, operate, and evolve. He has published extensively on the informal institutions that govern life in prisons in California and around the globe.
Dr. Skarbek's book, The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System (Oxford University Press), received the American Political Science Association's 2016 William H. Riker Award for the best book in political economy in the previous three years. It was also awarded the 2014 Best Publication Award from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime and was shortlisted for the British Sociological Association's 2014 Ethnography Award.
His most recent book, The Puzzle of Prison Order: Why Life Behind Bars Varies around the World (Oxford University Press), won awards from the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.
For more information about this program and other upcoming events, visit www.events.fmi.ttu.edu or contact the Free Market Institute at free.market@ttu.edu or (806) 742-7138.
