Ryan Steel

Biography

Ryan Steel received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) in 2022, specializing in drug use/policy, embodiment, and social control at the intersections of medical and criminal justice institutions. His mixed-methods dissertation research focused on Minnesota's medical cannabis program, which at the time was one of the most restrictive in the US. Ryan also conducted ethnographic research on affordable housing activism and the politics of urban space in Minneapolis, as well as quantitative analyses of national survey data on public attitudes about religion, race, politics, and civic engagement as a member of of the University of Minnesota's "American Mosaic Project' research team. His primary interests are in the fields of drugs, social control and governance, the body/embodiment, law & society, medical sociology, critical criminology, theory, and social ontology.

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology, University of Minnesota (2022)
• M.A. University of Minnesota
• B.A. Bethel University

Current Research

Ryan's current research focuses on drug testing practices and the consequential use of urinalysis across a range of institutions, including criminal justice, healthcare, employment, education, sports, the family, and social services. With his co-author, Laura Browder (Univ. of Richmond), Ryan is currently writing a book on the history of drug testing. In addition, he is writing a theory-based book on the relationship between the body, institutions, and governance that brings together the works of Deleuze & Guattari, Dorothy Smith, Michel Foucault, and Erving Goffman. He has published research in the Journal of Health & Social Behavior and Sociology of Health & Illness, as well as articles on teaching and pedagogy.

Courses Taught

Ryan has taught courses in Criminology, Systems of Justice, Sociology of Drugs, Deviance, Sociology of Health/Illness/Medicine, Research Methods, Social Statistics, and Introduction to Sociology. Prior to Miam University, Ryan taught for three years as a visiting faculty in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Richmond. Before graduate school, Ryan conducted applied community-based research and the program evaluations as a Research Associate II for the nonprofit Amherst H. Wilder Foundation (St. Paul, MN).

Selected Publications

• Steel, Ryan T. (2024) “Painful Subjects, Desiring Relief: Experiencing and Governing Pain in a Medical Cannabis Program.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002214...
• Steel, Ryan T. (2022) “Medicalizing the Menace? The Symbiotic Convergence of Medicine and Law Enforcement in the Medicalization of Marijuana in Minnesota.” Sociology of Health & Illness. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13513.