Dr. Paul Odér
Assistant Professor Office: 31070 - Blair HallPhone: 217-581-3123
Email: poder@eiu.edu
Website: https://pauloder.framer.website
INTRODUCTION
Office: Blair Hall 3116
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Criminology
Spring/Fall 2026 Office Hours:
Mondays 2pm–3pm | Tuesdays 1pm–2pm | Wednesdays 2pm–4pm
Paul Odér (O-dare) holds a Criminal Justice PhD and M.Phil from CUNY The Graduate Center/John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His research centers on lead poisoning, gentrification, and carceral geography.
Paul is an interdisciplinary scholar with training in criminal justice, criminology, forensic science, forensic anthropology, and creative writing. His past research topics include police violence, human-wildlife conflict/wildlife criminology, and community violence intervention. He joins the department as the former Research Coordinator, and a former Research Specialist and Fellowship Specialist for the NYC Climate Justice Hub housed at the CUNY Center for the Humanities.
Paul will be teaching Introduction to Criminal Justice, Introduction to Forensic Science, and Critical Criminology in Fall 26.
Research & Creative Interests
Paul's research centers on lead poisoning, gentrification, and carceral geography.
His future work will focus on environmental justice/environmental humanities, gentrification and jailing, urban exploration, and the sociology of sport.
Publications
Scholarly Journal Publications
Jones-Brown, D., Dawson, A., Blount-Hill, K., Fuller, K., Odér, P, & Fradella, H. (2021). Am I my brother’s keeper: Can duty to intervene policies save lives and reduce the need for special prosecutors in officer-involved homicide cases? Criminal Justice Studies, 1-45. doi: 10.1080/1478601X.2021.1964694.
- Reprinted: The Criminal Law Bulletin (2021).
Blount-Hill, Kwan-Lamar & Odér, Paul. (2020). From Power and Privilege to Dignity and Respect: Developing a Theory of Species Stratification and Interspecies Dominance. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8: 553460. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2020.553460.
Other Publications
Hayes, A., & Odér, P. (2025). Opinion: The housing hazard we don’t think about. City Limits. https://citylimits.org/opinion-the-housing-hazard-we-dont-think-about/
Pugliese, K., Odér, P., Hudson, T., & Butts, J. (2022). Community Violence Intervention at the roots (CVI–R): Building evidence for grassroots community violence prevention. New York, NY: Research & Evaluation Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.
Odér, Paul. (2020). Why the rot runs so deep: Racist policing is indisputable, and leaders have done almost nothing about it. New York Daily News. https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-riots-and-protestssymptom-failure-20200604-5nbmokixlrgsvhzv4rycnt4aji-story.html.
Education & Training
PhD. City University of New York, The Graduate Center, Criminal Justice (2026)
M.Phil City University of New York, The Graduate Center, Criminal Justice (2023)
B.S.A.S Youngstown State University, Forensic Science (2016)