It has been a little bit more than a year since I published A Most Definitely Incomplete List of Podcasts for Criminal Justice Classes, and since then podcasts have only become more popular – especially podcasts about crime. Science communication experts are constantly pressing the importance of story or narrative for conveying information, and that…
BLOG
Narrative identity and neuroscience
Lately I have been thinking a lot about the “interactive” part of narratives of desistance – the negotiation of narratives with others, positive feedback and “identity verification” , and the role of the story audience in determining which narratives are credible and authentic and which are not. I think that this is a point of…
The risky business of reentry and desistance
“The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” — Attributed to Anaïs Nin, possibly Elizabeth Appell. During my years in graduate school, I became heavily involved in dog training and competition. It was a welcome distraction from the stress of graduate…
Role identities, narrative identity, and change
In the question period of an ASC panel about identity change and desistance, an audience member commented that in looking at this relationship, we should remember that we all change our identities. She rattled off a few examples of her own identity changes, largely focusing on role identities and also on a transition from rebellious…
A Most Definitely Incomplete List of Podcasts for Criminal Justice Classes
A recent discussion in the Facebook group “Teaching with a Sociological Lens” (which is a fantastic group that I highly recommend!) reminded me of how much I love to use podcast episodes in place of or alongside reading assignments when I teach criminal justice topics. Actually, podcasts are just one of many different things that…
What Gaming Has Meant to This “Girl Gamer”
In light of Gamergate, I wanted to write something about what gaming has meant to me over the last 16+ years and what we are losing by making the gaming community so exclusive. When I was 10 years old, a friend of my father’s bought me my first video game. It was a little pet…
#NaNoWriMo, #AcWriMo, #DigiWriMo – waddayaknow?
I am currently 4,134 words deep into NaNoWriMo 2014 – that’s “National Novel-Writing Month,” for the uninitiated. I say that firmly tongue-in-cheek, because I’m barely initiated myself. I’ve known about NaNoWriMo for years (I seem to be embedded in a social network of creative writers – and I like it that way!) but have never…
Using Google Forms for Midsemester Evaluations
I use mid-semester evaluations to get student feedback not only on my teaching, but on their preparedness and engagement in the course. I find that students often have constructive advice about improvements I could easily make (“more discussion,” “more group activities”) and can be quite introspective about their own performance in the class (“I should…
#FergusonSyllabus: Resources for Discussing Ferguson in the Classroom
I have written here already about some of my ideas for teaching about Ferguson and the death of Mike Brown, specifically about police militarization, the long history of troubled relations between police and communities of color, racial profiling and discrimination, and media depictions of victims and offenders. If you are interested in further resources, you should…
Ferguson and the Militarization of Police
Last night I stayed up late, refreshing my Twitter feed and watching commentary about the situation in Ferguson, Mo. Thank goodness for Twitter, for the folks on the ground live-tweeting what they see and for the social commentary of many brilliant minds. I checked my other social media accounts and looked at the differences in…