Susan A. Phillips has studied gangs and graffiti in the U.S. since 1990. Phillips received her Ph.D. in anthropology in 1998 from UCLA, where she taught for four years before coming to Pitzer College. Her first book, Wallbangin: Graffiti and Gangs in L.A., was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1999. Her second book, Operation Fly Trap: Gangs, Drugs, and the Law, is forthcoming in Spring 2012. She was named a Soros Justice Media Fellow in 2008, and received a Harry Frank Guggenheim research grant in 2005 to fund her fieldwork. Phillips currently directs community-based research programs in Ontario, California for Pitzer College. She is a member of the Environmental Analysis field group, where she contributes curriculum on urban studies.