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Before and After: Editing a Collection through the Pandemic
Get PDFAt Mythcon in San Diego (2019, the “before time”), the Stewards approved my proposal for the collection of essays entitled Cities and Strongholds of Middle-earth; Essays on the Habitations of Tolkien’s Legendarium from Mythopoeic Press. I will discuss the process of soliciting contributors, compiling, cajoling, editing, developing the introduction, proofing the volume, working with MythPress editors, as well as discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic affected/ affects the process of publication, and offer a general overview of the volume itself, which [Varda willing!] will be available for order at Mythcon53
Criminology and Criminal Justice Researchers’ Experiences and Challenges with Institutional Review Boards
Get PDFConducting research in criminology and criminal justice settings brings unique challenges involving human subjects. Prior research has examined the quality and effectiveness of Institutional Review Boards (IRB). However, research on the experiences of criminology and criminal justice researchers when interfacing with their IRBs is scant. This study seeks to fill this gap through the exploration of experiences criminology and criminal justice researchers have had with IRBs. Focus groups were conducted with 13 researchers who were members of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the American Society of Criminology. Results revealed that participants experienced challenges centering around specific themes including: Protocol submission process, IRB lack of understanding of criminal justice research, IRB chair concerns, IRB focus on legality, and appeal policies. Recommendations for improving IRB reviews of protocols and challenges unique to criminology and criminal justice were another emerging theme. Policy implications are discussed
You In or Out?: Reflecting on Positionality in Gang Research
Get PDFPositionality is an important consideration when carrying out research. An effective tool for understanding this process is reflexivity—a continual dialogue that explores the interplay between our identities and how data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted. These reflexive accounts have been used in various disciplines, including criminal justice and criminology. In advancing this important practice, we offer insight into our experiences studying a hard-to-reach population: gangs. Specifically, we document how our insider and outsider identities, as well as the space between facilitated access, were used strategically and informed our interpretations of data. We conclude by encouraging reflexivity within criminology broadly and specifically among scholars who study hard-to-reach populations like street gangs
Pathways to Freedom: The Evolution of the Parole Process for Youth Lifers in California
Get PDFThis paper explores the evolution of resentencing/parole mechanisms for youth lifers in California through the lens of lived experience. We use a case study approach with a triangulation of data sources, including qualitative interviews, parole hearing transcripts, and state legislation. For three purposively selected cases, we analyze the emotional experience of seeking resentencing/parole and analyze how the parole board determined suitability for release based on standard parole factors as well as “youth-specific” mitigation considerations. In all three cases, the parole board leaned heavily on standard parole factors such as demonstration of remorse and insight, compliant prison behavior, and participation in rehabilitation programming. However, as California legislation evolved from 2012 onward, the parole board gave greater weight to youthfulness as mitigation rather than a risk factor for continued criminality. These case studies provide a rich lens to understand how resentencing/parole policies and procedures are experienced by individuals whose freedom is at stake
You\u27re Going to Make a Hell of a Corrections Man Someday : Work Experiences of Female Wardens and Superintendents
Get PDFThis project describes the experiences of female wardens and superintendents in state correctional facilities in the United States. There has been little research on women in leadership positions in corrections; most research has focused on females working in non-traditional occupations or as corrections officers. This project describes how women negotiate gender in a masculine organizational culture where they are not always welcome. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-nine wardens and superintendents from thirteen states. The subjects discussed various issues women working in corrections face, from appearance to interacting with inmates and coworkers, being under near-constant scrutiny as women, and being held to high standards of professionalism. The women interviewed addressed the positive benefits of women working in corrections and their contributions to their institutions, the field of corrections, and working women
Queering the Problem: Destabilizing normative Tropes in Jonathan Stroud’s \u3ci\u3eLockwood and Co. \u3c/i\u3e
Get PDFHolly Munro, the office assistant come agent in Jonathan Stroud’s young-adult series Lockwood and Co., is the sole character in the five books to hint at living in a queer relationship. Lockwood and Co. is a small agency in London, fighting against the Problem, the nightly recurrence of ghosts and specters. In The Empty Grave, the final book in the series, Holly and Lucy Carlyle are crouched in the kitchen at 35 Portland Row, waiting for an attack of a group of thugs on the house. Holly and Lucy are nervously exchanging confidences, and Holly makes the point that Antony Lockwood, the leader of the company and owner of Portland Row, is not her type: “Holly laughed again; her eyes sparkled as she glanced at me sidelong. ‘You must know there are other possibilities in this world’” (ch. 19).
Such a half-hinted suggestion of sexual orientation is not enough to position Stroud’s series as a queer text, but the presence of ghosts throughout Britain operate as a destabilizing force, undermining family, social, and governmental organization. The Problem destabilizes the country so completely that children and teens, the only ones with the ability to see ghosts, must lead the fight against the hauntings. The Problem is not what Pauline Palmer calls a case of “queer spectrality;” however, the epidemic of ghosts and hauntings across the country works to both undermine and reconfigure normative and hegemonic power structures.
Lucy Carlyle, the narrator of the series, lives her life in the liminal space between life and death. She is an operative, a ghost hunter, and most of all a listener: she is one of only two people in England who can talk to spirits. As a teen girl, Lucy undermines conventional representations of femininity, and as an agent, she undermines accepted and safe ways of dealing with spirits. Even her attachment to Anthony Lockwood minimizes sexual tension and undercuts the romantic trope that so often dominates teen fiction. I want to argue that Stroud’s series, while not overtly queer in its representation of gender or gender identities, presents a secondary world that is queered by its destabilization of normative societal, institutional, and young adult romantic tropes
Queen\u27s Pride: A Queer Reading of Star Wars Character Padmé Amidala
No full textEver since Luke Skywalker and Han Solo first appeared onscreen together in 1977, LGBTQ+ Star Wars fans have harnessed the power of queer reading to write themselves back into a galaxy far, far away, despite Lucasfilm’s long-term disapproval of such practices. Nonetheless, there exists little scholarly literature on queerness in the franchise, and even less on the potentially sapphic characters. Queen Padmé Amidala, first introduced onscreen in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, proves a surprising—but no less salient—queer figure in Star Wars. From her intimate relationships with her handmaidens, to her experimentation with gender performativity, to her quiet yet intense desire for her best friend Sabé, I analyze how Padmé can be viewed as a queer figure in media throughout the Star Wars franchise, including but not limited to Episodes I-III, The Clone Wars television series, and E.K. Johnston’s Queen’s Shadow trilogy. Ultimately, I encourage fans to embrace queer reading as a means of reclaiming the Star Wars franchise for themselves, while still demanding better representation from the Disney-Lucasfilm canon
February 2024 Bulldog Alumni & Friends News
Get PDFFebruary 15 &16 - SWOSU Jazz Festival, www.SWOSUJazz.com
March 8 - SWOSU Palooza
March 10-15 - SWOSU Giving Week
March 18-22 - Spring Break
April 5 - Friends of Crowder Lake Dinner & North Family Endowed Lecture
April 6 - Crowder Lake Opening Day
April 15 - Dobson Bulldog Golf Classic
May 10 - Distinguished Alumni Reception
May 11 - Spring Graduatio
Welcome and Announcements
Get PDFJoin us for a screening of the Welcome and Announcements video in the \u27Track 1\u27 room, and have a cup of coffee before we get started