Donna Selman, professor and chair of the department of criminal justice studies at Illinois State University, is the 2025 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Criminology and the Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice. Considered the highest honor in the discipline, the award recognizes Dr. Selman’s research contributions and longstanding service to the field of critical criminology.
Throughout her career, Dr. Selman has conducted extensive research on the privatization of prisons. Her work led her to co-author Punishment for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business, and the Incarceration Binge (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010). In addition to her primary research area, Dr. Selman also studies punitive social control, moral panics, and law-enforcement technology.
Before joining the Illinois State faculty, Dr. Selman was associate dean for graduate programs in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies at Indiana State University. Earlier in her career, she taught at Eastern Michigan University.