Workshops
Critical Methodologies
This workshop will provide attendees with an understanding of critical approaches to academic research, including a conversation on critiques of mainstream methodologies, the ways in which research methods can perpetuate oppression, and strategies and techniques for decolonizing research methods. This workshop aims to address Richie’s (2011) critique that scholars are not prepared to utilize or are not even knowledgeable about critical methods and paradigms. The workshop organizers have extensive experience both critiquing traditional methods and utilizing critical methods.
Workshop Facilitators
- Dr. John Brent, Assistant Professor, Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University
- Dr. Kishonna Gray, Assistant Professor, Gender and Women's Studies and Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago
Critical Pedagogies
This workshop will provide attendees with an understanding of critical pedagogy as a pedagogical frame and strategies and techniques for developing a critical pedagogy informed classroom. Critical pedagogical approaches offer a means of critically studying the systems and structures that develop and enforce the dominant ideologies surrounding criminality and the ways in which social identities are wrapped into these ideologies (for examples of such pedagogy in action, see Mayhew & DeLuca Fernández, 2007; McDowell & Reed, 2018). This workshop aims to address the critiques raised by Sullivan (1994) and Robinson (2001) that graduate and undergraduate programs do not help students evaluate the system in critical ways. The workshop organizers have extensive experience in both utilizing critical pedagogies and publishing on critical pedagogies.
Workshop Facilitators
- Dr. Carla Barrett, Associate Professor, Sociology, John Jay College
- Dr. Alison Reed, Assistant Professor, English, Old Dominion University
- Dr. Lori Sexton, Associate Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri—Kansas City
- Dr. Jason Williams, Assistant Professor, Justice Studies, Montclair State University
Pathways to the Future
This workshop will serve as both a close to the conference and an opportunity to weave various aspects of the conference together. This workshop will develop a list of strategies, next steps, and short- and long-term goals for scholars to engage with after leaving the conference to further contribute to criminology generally, help move criminology towards a more social justice-oriented field, benefit society, and lead to societal change. This workshop is in response to Belknap’s (2015) call to action.
Workshop Facilitator
- Dr. Rita Shah, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology, Eastern Michigan University
Social Justice and Academia
This workshop will provide attendees with an understanding of the challenges of addressing barriers to social justice within academia broadly and strategies and techniques for achieving change at their institutions. This workshop aims to address the critiques raised by scholars across academia that institutions of higher education reify social inequalities and privilege certain scholars over others. The workshop organizer is uniquely suited as she served as a member of the EMU AAUP contract negotiation committee, implemented a Social Justice major at Indiana State University, and has worked at both institutions to incorporate a social justice ethos at various levels of the institution.
Workshop Facilitator
- Dr. Donna Selman, Professor, Multidisciplinary Studies, Indiana State University