Sydney Shevat is a PhD student in the sociology program at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. Her primary concentration is criminology, with a second concentration in environmental sociology. Sydney is also enrolled in the graduate certificate program for women, gender, and sexuality studies. Her areas of research include topics in critical criminology such as green criminology, reproductive politics, gendered violence, critical feminist theory, social activism/grassroots justice, animal studies, critical carceral studies/abolition, and immigration. She was awarded a graduate teaching associateship her first year and now serves as an editorial assistant for Crime Media Culture. Sydney received the Isobel Griscom Fellowship as well as the UT Graduate Student Fellowship.

Sydney received her BS in criminology and criminal justice (2021) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) with minors in environmental sustainability, psychology, and German. She received her MS in applied criminology with an emphasis in transnational crime and justice (2023) from NAU.