New Directions in Critical Criminology
Speakers
Jeff Ferrell
Dr. Ferrell is Professor of Sociology at Texas Christian University and Visiting Professor of Criminology at the University of Kent, UK. He is the author of many articles and volumes, including the books Crimes of Style, Tearing Down the Streets, Empire of Scrounge, and, with Keith Hayward and Jock Young, Cultural Criminology: An Invitation. He is a founding editor of the journal Crime, Media, Culture.
James Kilgore
James Kilgore is a writer, educator, and social justice activist based in Urbana, Illinois. He writes widely on issues of mass incarceration and social justice. He spent six years in prison, during which time he drafted his three published novels. His latest book is Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time. He has written a number of articles for online and print platforms such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Truthout, Counterpunch, Dissent, Radical Teacher, and Critical Criminology.
Yasser A. Payne
Dr. Payne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Black American Studies at the University of Delaware. He has organized a street ethnographic research program centered on exploring notions of resilience and resiliency with the streets of Black and Brown America using an unconventional methodological framework entitled: Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR)—the process of involving street-identified persons or members of this population in the process of activist-based research. His work seeks to break through stereotypical barriers and images of Black and Brown people in the criminal justice system, so that transition back in the community and opportunities for upward mobility are successful.
Tony Platt
Tony Platt is the author of ten books and 150 essays and articles dealing with issues of race, inequality, and social justice in American history. Platt has taught at the University of Chicago, University of California (Berkeley), and California State University (Sacramento). His publications include The Child Savers: the Invention of Delinquency, The Politics of Riot Commissions, 1917-1970, Bloodlines: Recovering Hitler's Nuremberg Laws, From Patton's Trophy to Public Memorial, and Grave Matters: Excavating California's Buried Past.
Claire Renzetti
Claire Renzetti is the Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair in the Center for Research on Violence Against Women at the University of Kentucky (UK). She also serves as Professor and Chair in the Department of Sociology at UK. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Delaware. Dr. Renzetti is an internationally recognized scholar on gender and crime issues. Her research and community engagement have received regional and national recognition, most recently by the Women and Crime Division of the American Society of Criminology, from whom she received the Saltzman Award for Contributions to Practice. Much of Dr. Renzetti's research has focused on the violent victimization experiences of socially and economically marginalized groups of women, including women living in poverty and women in same-sex intimate partnerships. Her current research focuses on human trafficking, particularly domestic sex trafficking, as well as services for trafficking victims. She also examines the effects of religiosity and religious self-regulation on intimate partner violence perpetration and victimization. Additionally, she evaluates the potential benefits of a therapeutic horticulture program for residents of a battered women's shelter.
Brett Story
Brett Story is a filmmaker, writer, organizer, and holds a doctorate in Geography from the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the production of carceral space. Her first feature-length film, Land of Destiny (2010), is an award-winning portrait of a petrochemical town in paralysis in the wake of an epidemic of cancers. She is currently directing a feature-length non-fiction film about the influence of prisons on public landscapes throughout the U.S, titled The Prison in Twelve Landscapes. Brett has also worked extensively as a freelance radio and print journalist for media outlets such as CBC Radio and The Nation.