Paul Odér is a sixth-year criminal justice doctoral candidate at CUNY John Jay College/The Graduate Center. His research interests include lead poisoning, urban exploration, state crime, human-wildlife conflict, police violence, and the Black diaspora. His dissertation uses mixed methods to explore gentrification’s impact on childhood lead poisoning and youth violence in New York City. Although a criminologist by training, his interdisciplinary research extends criminology through its novel engagement with public health, urban sociology, environmental studies, urban studies, critical geography, and environmental politics. Paul’s background as an interdisciplinary scholar-activist and organizer includes working with the End the 24-hr Workday for Home Care Workers campaign, a related anti-gentrification struggle in Chinatown, organizing against rent and housing issues within GC Housing, and collaborating with the Cooper Square Committee on lead-dust free campaigns, information dissemination, and traditional/social media messaging. As a college instructor in the CUNY system, Paul embraces a critical approach to teaching criminology and sociology courses, using scholarly and activist giants such as R.W. Gilmore, Herbert Needleman, and the Black Panthers to inspire his students.
Paul is excited to be at the Hub for the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary (and potentially transdisciplinary) work alongside a collection of great minds. Having worked within criminology to advance environmental justice, Paul is additionally excited to move out of the field, and to strive towards true environmental justice by any means necessary.
