Colleagues Fulfill Late Alumna’s Research Legacy with New Book
The Department of Sociology lost a cherished alumna when Regina (Gina) White Benedict passed away suddenly on March 31, 2021. She was assistant professor of criminal justice and coordinator of the Criminal Justice program at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, having earned her PhD in sociology at UT in 2009.
Benedict was loved and admired by her academic and home communities (including a softball community) and especially by the hundreds of students she taught through the years—with deep respect for the students and for their subject matter in all its complexity.
Benedict’s knowledge and wisdom live on in her research. Her dissertation, based on in-depth interviews with women in prison in Kentucky, was motivated by a desire to understand how people make meaning of their lives while living in captivity. Benedict had always intended to publish the dissertation as a book. In the past year, a communal effort made the book a reality.
Lois (Lo) Presser, Distinguished Professor of the humanities and professor of sociology at UT and Benedict’s advisor from 2005–2009, teamed up with Beth Easterling, visiting associate professor of criminal justice at Roanoke College, to find a publisher, adapt Benedict’s original work to its specifications, and prepare, with heavy hearts, the foreword and afterword. Presser and Easterling had been close both to Benedict and to the project: They knew its potential. So, they conferred with Benedict’s husband Travis, her daughters, Zoe and Mia, and her parents, Mickey and Cookie White. The group set a plan in motion.
Incarceration and Older Women: Giving Back, Not Giving Up was published by Bristol University Press in the summer of 2023. The book is built on Benedict’s rigorous research, Presser and Easterling’s editorial efforts, the steady encouragement of Benedict’s family, and the intelligent and compassionate stewardship of the publishers. Most of all, the book owes its existence to the candor and generosity of the women who agreed to be interviewed by Benedict.
These women spoke of hardships that began early in life and were compounded by incarceration. However, they also spoke of making positive meaning of their circumstances. They told stories of helping and supporting, now and in future, fellow prisoners, family members on the outside, and others. Benedict understood these stories as inspired by an impulse toward generativity, of guiding and nurturing generations to come.
Benedict passed away at 44, the same age as Evelyn (a pseudonym) when she and Benedict sat down for an interview. Evelyn was serving a 70-year sentence for murder and attempted murder. When Evelyn met Benedict, she had recently learned that she would not be considered for parole for another 20 years. But Evelyn worked hard on personal growth while in prison and envisioned the contributions she might one day make: “I think I’ll be a good influence when I get out, even if I’m 100 years old. I’ve set a goal. I’ll do it.”
Prison researchers before Gina Benedict have illuminated how people “cope with” or “adapt” to prison life. They have illuminated resilience in prison, and hard-won desistance and reintegration after release. Yet, these studies and perspectives could never adequately depict the resolve to make a difference held by people like Evelyn.
In her book, Benedict wrote that she had motherhood in common with most of her research participants. We, her community, would state the matter differently: Both she and her participants had an unshakeable will to give to others. We received Benedict’s care and will pass her legacy of care further on.