Susan F. Sharp

  • Susan Sharp
  • Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, 1996.
  • L. J. Semrod Presidential Professor
  • E-mail: ssharp@ou.edu
  • Office Phone: (405)325-2829
  • Office: Kaufman Hall 324
  • Curriculum Vita:
  • Online Newsletter: ASC-DWC Newsletter
  • Academic Interests and Research: Gender differences in deviant behavior, effects of incarceration on the families of inmates, and the death penalty.
  • Courses taught: Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems (Honors)
    Crime & Delinquency, Sociology of Deviance (Honors), Alcohol, Drugs & Society, Death Penalty in the U.S., Gangs & Violence, Criminology Capstone, Advanced Methods of Social Research, Advanced Qualitative Methods, Seminar in Criminal Justice, Seminar in Deviance and Social Control, Seminar in Women, Crime & Criminal Justice, Seminar in Capital Punishment

Susan F. Sharp is the L. J. Semrod Presidential Professor in the Department of Sociology and Professor of Women’s Studies, University of Oklahoma. She has served as Executive Counselor for the Division on Critical Criminology of the American Society of Criminology, as Chair, Executive Counselor and Newsletter Editor of the Division on Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology, as founding editor of the journal Feminist Criminology, and as Chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Dr. Sharp is a Faculty Fellow in the College of Liberal Studies at the University of Oklahoma, a member of the Campus Tenure Committee, and a past member of the Honors Council.

Sharp completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, summa cum laude at Texas Tech University, 1980, followed by the Master of Arts in Sociology, Texas Tech University, 1982. She obtained her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she spent eight years as a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor in the state of Texas, including positions as Program Director for the Lavender Center for Adolescents in Austin, Texas, and Counseling Supervisor for the New Vision Treatment Program at Wackenhut Prison, Kyle, Texas.

Susan Sharp is the author of the book, Hidden Victims: Effects of the Death Penalty on Families of the Accused (Rutgers University Press, 2005). She is also the editor of the text The Incarcerated Woman (Prentice-Hall, 2003). She has authored more than 30 articles and book chapters focusing on gender, crime and the criminal justice system. Her current research focuses on capital punishment, the criminal justice system, and gender differences in crime and deviance.

Awards include National Merit Scholar, 1969; Outstanding Undergraduate Paper of the Mid-South Sociological Association, 1980; Outstanding Dissertation, Sociologists’ AIDS Network, 1996; University of Oklahoma Student Association President’s Award for Teaching Excellence, 1998; Most Inspiring Faculty Award from the student athletes at the University of Oklahoma, 2000; Rufus G. Hall Faculty Award 2002; Phil Wahl Abolitionist of the Year Award, 2004, the Good Teaching Award for the University of Oklahoma, 2005, the Kenneth G. Crook Faculty Award, 2007, the Saltzman award of the Division on Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology, and the L. J. Semrod Presidential Professor, 2009.