Member Profiles

A huge "thank you" to Mary Bosworth, Libby Deschenes, and Hoan Bui for their time and effort in responding to my inquiries. In upcoming issues, I'd like to continue offering a blend of profiles that represent the diversity of identities, roles, experiences, and statuses of members within the DWC. If you would like to contribute to an upcoming issue, don't be shy! Simply email me angie.moe@wmich.edu. Hope to see you all in Chicago!!!

-Angie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary Bosworth
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Wesleyan University

1) Why/how did you get into this field and why do you stay in it? (i.e., what drives you?)

I first became interested in prisons when I was a history undergraduate at the University of Western Australia. One of my professors -- Charlie Fox -- taught a class called 'crime and punishment' where we read Foucault and discussed the convict past of Australia. Then, when I was an honors student, I wrote a thesis on a recently closed girl's juvenile detention center in Perth called Nyandi. Somehow I was given free access to look over the institution and its records, and when I found that the young women were 'treated' by a combination of 'time out' in padded rooms and board games that taught them how to shop, or do their hair, I was hooked. These days, while I often find working on prisons rather depressing, the unreal nature of how the state punishes people, and the confused expectations that society, the prisoners and the system each have about what imprisonment will achieve, keeps me involved. There is just such a fundamental level at which the system of punishment doesn't make sense that keeps me going. That, and of course, the injustice of it all.

2) How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?

I definitely define myself as a feminist criminologist. By that, I mean not only that I incorporate a study of gender (and increasingly race and sexuality) into everything I do, but also that my politics influence how I do research and how I teach. I am very influenced by discussions of feminist methodology, where you try to be egalitarian and become involved with the people you study. I try to put these same ideals to work in the class-room, since I think students learn more in an interactive, non-hierarchical set-up, and it is certainly more fun for me.

3) What are your current projects or interests?

Currently I have just started a new job at Wesleyan University, so one of my most important projects is settling in, figuring it out, and relaxing after my six years in New York City. I now live in a house! I have a garden. I drive a car. These are big changes. In terms of academic work, I am completing an article with four prisoners on a research project they were recently involved in with me. The research formed the basis of my new book 'The US Federal Prison System' (Sage, 2002). In the article, we are talking about how participants and the researcher negotiate emotions and boundaries. It has been fascinating to write on something so collectively.

I am also about to start work on the relationship between identity, citizenship and punishment. Like everyone else I was deeply affected by last year's attack on the World Trade Center. Living in New York at the time was very frightening and sad. Last year I also finally got my green card. In some ways, both events made the post-September 11 frenzy over terrorists, the passing of the so called USA Patriot Act and the detention of so many Arabs and Arab-Americans resonate personally. As a result, I want to explore how certain identities and individuals become defined as threats and risks, and the role punishment plays in defining who these people are. At this stage, as is probably apparent it is just a bunch of ideas. But it's always nice to embark on a new project, and I see it as a return to the more theoretical work I did before on women in prison in England.

4) Do you have any kids, pets and/or significant partner?

I have two cats called D'Artagnan and Minou -- who are soooo pleased to have left New York. They are out there in the woods and garden every day now, instead of scratching up our furniture and leaving piles of hair everywhere in our one bedroom apartment. Weird, rural suburbia rocks in their view! I also have an art historian husband. Anyone know of any jobs for a French, seventeenth-century architecture specialist? (I thought not.)

5) How do you wind down after a stressful day?

All the usual favourites, beer, music, tv, cornchips. No exercise, yoga or meditation for me I'm afraid.

6) What is your most embarrassing moment (if willing to share)?

I can't think of a particularly embarrassing recent moment. There are always the occasional clanger in lectures -- like a few days ago when I had to explain what the Enlightenment was in about 20 words and I became completely inarticulate -- "the Enlightenment, like, was, you know, in the eighteenth century and, like.." I am blessed with an extremely poor memory, so even when bad things happen, I usually can't dwell on them for long, since I forget. Of course, the same quality makes precision in lectures a little difficult too, presumably leading to moments of embarrassment that I no longer recall.

7) What is one of your lifelong goals?

There are so many goals: to achieve a relaxed state of happiness and calm, while remaining engaged and productive (perhaps I should try yoga huh?). Also, to balance my Australian connection with living in the US. Being an immigrant, however privileged is harder than I had anticipated. Of course, most importantly it would be great to contribute to a more sensible discussion about punishment and incarceration, and to be witness to a general shift in world politics back to the Left and away from scariness and stupidity. But that, my friends, seems a long way off at present.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Libby Deschenes
Professor of Criminal Justice, California State University, Long Beach

1) Why/how did you get into this field and why do you stay in it? (i.e. what drives you?)

I was introduced to the field of sociology and to research by a professor at Colby College, Dr. Tom Morrione. I chose to study criminology because, as Durkheim suggested, crime will always exist. At the University of Pennsylvania Dr. Paul Tracy encouraged me to finish my Ph.D. and along with Drs. Marvin Wolfgang, Neil Weiner and Bob Figlio taught me about longitudinal cohort studies. My first position with Dr. Jeff Fagan at URSA helped me to get into the field of evaluation research and my second position at UCLA with Dr. Doug Anglin introduced me to research in the field of drug addiction. The importance of social policy research was emphasized by colleagues at RAND, including Drs. Susan Turner, Joan Petersilia and Peter Greenwood. Now I stay in the field to conduct research and evaluations that provide knowledge for changing social policy and as a university professor I try to teach others how to do quality research.

2) How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?

Although I do not see myself as much of an activist, I guess my work and occupation define me as a scholar and a teacher.

3) What are your current projects or interests?

For the past decade I have focused my research on evaluations of drug courts and I continue to be interested in this field. My dissertation and some of my other studies have examined correlates of juvenile violence and gang membership. Although it has been difficult to obtain funding for longitudinal research, I have had the good fortune to be involved in several projects with colleagues, such as Dr. Finn Esbensen, who conducted the evaluation of G.R.E.A.T. In addition, teaming up with Drs. Barbara Bloom, Barbara Owen, and Jill Rosenbaum, to study social policy towards girls and young women, has expanded my areas of interest. Most recently I was appointed the Editor of Crime and Delinquency, which will be a very challenging and interesting project.

4) Do you have any kids, pets and/or significant partner?

My husband, Ray, works in the design and construction of shopping malls. We have two cats who have been with us as long as we have been married (16 years).

5) How do you wind down after a stressful day?

Since I get home late after night classes, in the evenings I tend to watch television (Law & Order, ER, CSI, Crossing Jordan), but in the mornings I get up and go for a swim workout with Irvine Novaquatics or go trail running in a local park.

6) What is your favorite word? Least favorite?
"Persistence" is probably the word that I use most often these days when talking to graduate students.
My least favorite words are "should" and "evil-doer".

7) What is your most embarrassing moment (if willing to share)?

Attempting to sing karaoke, but not being able to hear the music so I was out of tune.

8) What is one of your lifelong goals?

My goals have changed over time as the priorities in my life have shifted from education to family, health, teaching, and so forth. Thus, I have had mostly short term rather than lifelong goals. Many of these goals, such as completing my Ph.D., participating in sprint triathlons, running a half marathon, and obtaining tenure, I have fulfilled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hoan Bui
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Tennessee

1) Why/how did you get into this field and why do you stay in it? (i.e., what drives you?)

I was born in Vietnam, and Saigon was the place where I grew up and witnessed numerous social and political upheavals, including the defeat of South Vietnam, that had a great impact on my life. I have been interested in social justice, especially gender justice, since I was in high school. Before 1975, I studied law and pursued an academic career in legal studies, a very ambitious career goal for women in Vietnam at that time. My studies were interrupted and my career dream died when the communists took over South Vietnam in 1975 and eliminated all legal studies programs. I arrived in the U.S. in 1989, and soon became attracted by the exceptional educational opportunities in the U.S. Because I had some background in legal studies, I decided to study criminology and criminal justice. My own experience of a minority immigrant and my studies, especially my training at Michigan State University, have strengthened my understanding and reinforced my interests in social justice as it is related to race, class, and gender.

As I made progress in my studies, my hope of realizing my dream of an academic career wavered because I was fully aware of age, race/ethnicity, and gender discrimination in American society. However, my love for research and social justice kept my dream alive and helped me to move on. As a rookie in the academic field, I have not experienced very much of the "heat" of the profession. However, I do feel concerned about a lack of understanding on gender issues not only among students but also among a large proportion of faculty. This is one of the reasons that makes me stay and work to improve knowledge about gender through research and teaching.

2) How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?

I consider myself as having three related roles: scholar, educator, and activist. I believe in a two-way interaction between research and teaching, between theory and practice and between scholarship and public policies. I think that teaching is a way to disseminate knowledge discovered by research. I believe also that academicians should get out of the ivory tower and bring knowledge they have discovered to improve social life. In the areas of gender, class, and race studies, my research and teaching are aimed at improving understandings and promoting gender, race, and class equality. My activism is in that sense.

3) What are your current projects or interests?

My areas of teaching and research interests include the sociology of law, crime and juvenile delinquency; relationships between gender, class, race, and social justice; immigrants and criminal justice. Currently, I participate in two research projects housed at Michigan State University as co-investigator (Merry Morash is the Principal Investigator in both projects). The first project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is studying intimate violence among Vietnamese immigrant women in the US (Boston area). The second project, funded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, is exploring crime victimizations among Asian Americans. I'm also conducting an exploratory study on delinquency among immigrants, using the seed money provided by my institution (University of Tennessee, Knoxville).

4) Do you have any kids, pets and/or significant partner?

No kids, no pets, and no significant partner. My close friend has a small flower garden in my backyard where I spend a little time to see plants and flowers greeting a new day in the morning. My garden is also a place where I relax myself, letting flowers and plants caress my soul after a rough day of work.

5) How do you wind down after a stressful day?

See #4.

6) What is your favorite word? Least favorite?

My favorite word = peace; my least favorite word = war

7) What is your most embarrassing moment (if willing to share)?

Cannot remember. Or, probably I am a kind of person who doesn't have an ethical standard to feel embarrassed (?) - just kidding.

8) What is one of your lifelong goals?

Lifelong goals? I don't know if I have other goals than staying in the academic field, work hard on teaching and seeking funding for research, especially research on gender issues, and contribute new scholarship to the literature of social justice.