1025 research outputs found
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Sara Budsock
No full textMy association with the Adams Center for Law and Society afforded me one of the greatest opportunities I’ve had as a student at Susquehanna University. During the summer prior to my senior year at SU, the Adams Center sponsored a nearly full-time internship position I held at the Snyder County District Attorney’s Office. As a student planning to attend law school after graduation, my experiences at the DA’s office taught me a great deal about criminal law and provided a perspective on my potential career path that I would otherwise have missed entirely.
While at the DA’s office, I wrote case briefs of Pennsylvania Superior Court decisions. Additionally, I was entrusted with various responsibilities related to case work while attending hearings and trials and I assisted the DA with planning various community outreach programs. Prior to my internship I never realized how much behind the scenes work is associated with criminal proceedings and managing the legal aspects of community safety in Snyder County. I really felt that I got an entirely new understanding of how the legal system works. Of course, I’m very grateful for the opportunity the Adams Center provided. Without the center’s sponsorship, I never would have been able to sustain an internship like this one. Interestingly, my internship helped me to decide that law school is not the right career path for me. Through my work with the DA in community outreach, I learned how rewarding a career in public service can be. Based on experience, I have decided to pursue a graduate degree in public policy. I am thankful to the Adam Center for providing me insight into a perspective career goal, and eventually allowing me to make an educated decision on the right career path for me.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/adams_scholars/1002/thumbnail.jp
The Canals of Mars
No full textThe Canals of Mars is a memoir that explores and ponders weakness, which in Gary Fincke\u27s family was the catch-all term for every possible human flaw-physical, psychological, or spiritual. Fincke grew up near Pittsburgh during the 1950s and 1960s, raised by blue-collar parents for whom the problems that beset people-from alcoholism to nearsightedness to asthma to fear of heights-were nothing but weaknesses. In a highly engaging style, Fincke meditates on the disappointments he suffered-in his body, his mind, his work-because he was convinced that he had to be perfect. Anything less than perfection was weakness and no one, he understood from an early age, wants to be weak. Six of the chapters in the book have been cited in Best American Essays. The chapter that provides the book\u27s title, The Canals of Mars, won a Pushcart Prize and was included in The Pushcart Book of Essays: The Best Essays from a Quarter Century of the Pushcart Prize.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/facultybooks/1018/thumbnail.jp
Core concepts in American government
No full textFaculty-authored chapter: The Judiciary, by Michele DeMary This text uses the cultural appeal of “lists” and “rank orders” as a pedagogical tool applied to American government. Each chapter presents a list of the top things a student should know about that topic, and then carefully and accessibly explores each of the items in the list. The lists contained in the text are used to teach introductory students what many scholars agree are the key, core aspects of American government. There is something people seem to find irresistible about lists and rank orders. There is also something almost unseemly or dangerous about them. This text uses both of these factors–the appeal and problems of “lists” and “rank orders”–as a pedagogical tool. The reader is asked to approach the lists critically and to think about what they might add to the list, what they might remove from the list, what they find problematic about the rank order, and so forth. Consequently, the lists serve to draw the students into the topic, to help them learn more about American government, and to use their critical thinking skills to critique the content and order of the lists. In a typical semester, it is nearly impossible to teach someone everything they can and should know about a topic as broad as American government and politics. Therefore, the two primary goals of this text are to (a) give introductory students the basic tools necessary to understand American government and politics in a format that is appealing and (b) in so doing giving them the background necessary to put current events and enduring questions into context.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/facultybooks/1000/thumbnail.jp
Samantha Hogan
No full textAs a pre-law student and legal studies minor at SU, I’ve found that the more I learn about the law, the more interesting the field has become for me. Increasingly I find myself fascinated by the various manifestations of law in every day life—what I think of as the multiple “faces” of law. For example, law can guarantee rights and freedoms for all on one hand, or it can restrict our options and limit our opportunities on the other; law can protect us from each other and punish those who victimize us; it can render us equal or unequal to others and it can constitute us as particular types of individuals in very consequential ways.
At the beginning of my senior year, I was selected as an Adams Center Scholar, a position that provided me with an opportunity to serve as a paid legal intern at North Penn Legal Services (NPLS) in Sunbury, Pa. NPLS engages the private bar, social services and community organizations, courts, and advocacy groups to effectively help low-income people with their civil legal needs. Services include individual representation, information, referral and advice, community legal education, and support for pro se clients.
As an intern at NPLS, I was frequently called on to shepherd clients through initial and subsequent interviews with an NPLS attorney, court appearances and ultimately on to a resolution. As I gained experience, I was called on to brief cases and write appeals. In addition, I became familiar with the inner workings of the Northumberland County Office of the Prothonotary. Overall, the NPLS internship allowed me to gain considerable understanding of how the legal profession operates at a practical level and to develop confidence in my capacity to work as an integral part of a fast-paced law office.
With commencement just around the corner, I will soon begin my first year of law school at Widener University. As I reflect on the undergraduate experiences that have led me to this point, I feel especially grateful to the Adams Center for Law and Society and North Penn Legal Services for the remarkable insights and opportunities that were afforded me as an Adams Center Scholar.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/adams_scholars/1009/thumbnail.jp
Bryon Chowka
No full textBoth my father and my grandfather devoted their lives to law enforcement, public service and protection of the community Not surprisingly, law-related topics were at the core of innumerable conversations at the dinner table on family occasions. Initially, I took these often heated discussions for granted, but as I grew up I became increasingly interested in what was being said. Over time, this budding interest in the law and its impact on individuals and society developed into a compelling passion of mine – one which has influenced my educational path so far and, hopefully, will define my graduate education and future career trajectory.
My work as an Adams Center scholar has led to a number of opportunities to further my academic and personal interests in the law. For example, during the summer and fall of 2011, I have interned at the Court of Common Pleas of Northumberland County with President Judge Robert Sacavage and Judge William Harvey Wiest.
My internship experiences have added hands-on experience that advances the theoretical aspects of law that I have learned in the classroom. Finding and interpreting case law, discussing orders and opinions with the judges and law clerks, and collaborating with local attorneys is part of my typical day at court.
This opportunity has put me in the hands of the area’s finest practitioners of law. Learning from the best and brightest will not only give me an advantage in law school, but also in life. I believe though that most rewarding experience I have gained from this internship are the personal connections and friendships that I have made with certain individuals who have fostered my growth as a student interested in law and importantly, as a person.
Upon graduation, my plan is to attend law school. Because of the Adams Center, I have made significant advancements in reaching this next step in my life.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/adams_scholars/1003/thumbnail.jp
Innovation and Orthodox Comic Books: The Case of Mahrwood Press
Get PDFHow should we interpret the transnational economy of comic books produced and published by American Israelis in Israel that are distributed by American Jewish publishers in the United States? When such comic books earn haskamot—letters of approbation by religious authorities attesting to their religious merit and educational worthiness—and become religiously sanctioned Jewish books, what are the consequences for our understanding of American Jewish writing? Are Orthodox comic books a novel, albeit conservative form of Jewish oppositional culture? I asked these questions at the conclusion of an earlier essay on contemporary American Jewish comic books, hoping that others would see them as indicative of the issues describing and catalyzing a new area of American Jewish literary studies. In what follows I probe for answers: first, by establishing a critical and sociohistorical context for reading Mahrwood Press\u27s Orthodox comic books as innovative but understudied cultural productions; and second, by analyzing a number of examples to show how they convey a masculinist, Jewish ethos opposed to an individualist, secular modernity while admiring ingenuity that conserves tradition. Mahrwood Press provides an exemplary case study, because its founder\u27s biography and publishing vision, the artists and writers he commissioned, and the stories he wrote and published spotlight how issues of cultural renewal and heterogeneity complicate our understanding of networks and the flow of information across spaces, places, and times. Mahrwood also reveals a provocative strand of the contemporary religious imaginary in US and American Jewish comic books
Tracing Theory on the Body of the “Walking Dead”: Der Muselmann and the Course of Holocaust Studies
Get PDFThe history of philosophical positions about the meaning of Holocaust victim experience can be organized around three general stances identified by the moral implications that follow: the redemptive, nihilistic, and narcissistic positions. Further, each stance includes a distinct view of the muselmann—that category of Holocaust victim generally referred to as the walking dead —that serves to confirm its larger theoretical claims. These categories have served as a helpful pedagogical tool when teaching a wide variety of texts in the field of Holocaust studies, and students can identify the limitations of each position in terms of the caricature of the muselmann on which it rests. Lastly, organizing a syllabus around these three positions encourages a certain intellectual progression from moral judgment, to moral uncertainty, to renewed engagement with the world
The Adams Center Presents: Valerie Jenness, Ph.D.
No full textAgnes Goes to Prison: Transgender Prisoners in Prisons for Men and the Olympics of Gender Authenticity Professor Jenness is Dean of the School of Social Ecology and Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society and in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests are organized around the politics of crime and criminalization; the nexus between law and marginalized communities; and public policy related to social control. Professor Jenness is the author of three books, including Making Hate a Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement Practice (2001), Hate Crimes: New Social Movements and the Politics of Violence (1997), and Making it Work: The Prostitutes\u27 Rights Movement in Perspective (1993), and a vast array of articles published in top-tier academic journals. Over the years, her work has been recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association, the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems, among others. She is frequently invited to speak at universities and governmental bodies both in the United States and internationally. In addition to her extensive record of cutting-edge research, Professor Jenness has recently undertaken work with an array of public officials to develop evidence-based policy related to crime and justice. Most recently, she has worked with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to develop historic policy mandating engagement with transgender people in a respectable and fair way during encounters in public as well as in local jails. This work was informed by her research on transgender prisoners, including the first systematic empirical study of transgender inmates in men’s prisons. To do so, she worked with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to identify all transgender inmates in all California prisons. This was no small task, requiring Professor Jenness to work both collaboratively with, and independently from, the CDCR’s Director of Adult Institutions (to whom all 33 California prison wardens report). To do this, she developed an innovative interview schedule specifically designed to be sensitive to transgender prisoners and to capture a wealth of information on their lives inside and outside of prison. When contacted, 95% of the transgender population in California’s prisons agreed to participate in the study, a stunning participation rate that clearly speaks to Professor Jenness’s unique ability to work with transgender people caught up in the justice system. The Adams Center is proud to present a scholar of this stature to the campus community both as a speaker and as an instructor in the classroom. Indeed, beyond delivering what promises to be an engaging and provocative talk tonight, Professor Jenness has agreed to teach a number of classes at SU, including a senior seminar session in sociology on methods of research involving vulnerable populations and a session on violence against sexual and gender minorities in the Psychology Department. In addition, the Adams Center will offer students and faculty opportunities to meet and interact with Professor Jenness in small groups during her two days on campus