Stephen J. Morewitz, California State University, East Bay I am writing these notes as my Spring Quarter at California State University, East Bay, winds down. Despite my heavy teaching and research load, I have enjoyed chairing the SSSP Law & Society Division. We are now holding our Division election, and I now look forward to passing the torch to the next Chair at the business meeting in Denver. I want to congratulate Lori Sexton, a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine, for winning the Lindesmith Graduate Student Paper Competition. Lori will receive a plaque, complimentary banquet ticket, and paid student registration for the annual meeting. Thanks go out to Lloyd Klein, Kimberly Richman, Richard Leo, and Cary Federman for their substantial work on the Lindesmith Graduate Student Paper Competition Committee. I would like to thank Kristen Desjarlais deKlerk, University of Calgary, for her excellent work in editing this newsletter! I would like to thank Art Jipson for his help as Vice Chair and Lloyd Klein for all of his assistance during my tenure as Chair. I hope that the Law and Society Division will continue promote new forms of collaboration and ideas from our members. I also hope that our experienced Division members will continue to serve as mentors to our graduate students and participate actively in social and employment networking. I hope to see you all this year at our annual meeting in Denver. Come to the Denver to see old friends and make new ones. In solidarity, Stephen J. Morewitz Department of Nursing and Health Sciences California State University, East Bay Chair, Law & Society Division Contents Notes from the Chair 1 Chair Election 2 2012 Art of Activism Conference 3 Member Publications 4 SPRING 2012 VOL. 18 NO. 2 VOL. 18 NO. 2 2 Law and Society Division Chair Election We have three highly qualified members who are running for the 2012-2014 Division Chair position: Bruce Arrigo Kristen M. Budd Kimberly Richman Please go to the SSSP homepage to review the candidatesÕ biographies. Please vote in this Election today through Saturday, June 16. Thanks in advance for participating in this important election. Please go to the following link to cast your vote: http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageId/1017. You can copy and paste the link into the address bar of your browser. Law and Society Division Lindesmith Graduate Student Paper Competition Lori Sexton, a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine, is the 2012 winner of the Law and Society Division Lindesmith Graduate Student Paper Competition for her paper entitled, "Penal Subjectivities: Developing a Theoretical Framework for Penal Consciousness.Ó The winning paper, ÒPenal Subjectivities: Developing a Theoretical Framework for Penal Consciousness,Ó is a novel and well thought out contribution to the literatures on both incarceration in late modernity and legal consciousness. The committee felt that this work demonstrated admirable creativity in applying a traditional law and society paradigmÑlegal consciousnessÑin a new and interesting way to examine the penal realities of incarcerated men and women. By analyzing how they experience and define their own punishment, the author not only expands the existing theoretical reach of the paradigm, but creates a new area of inquiry in what she terms Òpenal consciousness,Ó which itself has a number of important implications, both theoretical and practical, for the study of the penal system and the individuals and structures that comprise it. The paper is elegantly written, analytically rigorous, and theoretically astute. The committee congratulates Ms. Sexton on her excellent work. Kimberly D. Richman, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology and Legal Studies University of San Francisco 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117 415-422-5414 Fax: 415-422-5671 **2011-2012: Visiting Scholar, Center for the Study of Law and Society, U.C. Berkeley School of Law Sessions at the Annual Meeting The annual meeting is scheduled for August 16 Ð 18, in Denver, CO. I am very pleased to note that the Law and Society Division is sponsoring or co-sponsoring the following eight sessions (Sessions # 8, 16, 27, 34, 42, 52, 70, 97, 121, and 132 in the Preliminary Program). These sessions are listed below: Session 8: Gender, Sexuality, and the Law Session 16 (Thematic): Use of Art for Advocacy and Social Welfare Session 27: Legal Issues: International & Domestic Contexts Session 34: Socio-Political Dimensions of Criminal Law from Legislation to Law Enforcement I Session 42: Socio-Political Dimensions of Criminal Law from Legislation to Law Enforcement II Session 52: Law, Advocacy, and Change Session 70: Law, Policy, and Influence on Everyday Life Session 97: Death Penalty: State and Local Issues Session 121: Violence and the Law I Session 132: Violence and the Law II VOL. 18 NO. 2 3 2012 Annual Business Meeting of the Law and Society Division The Law and Society Division annual business meeting will be held on Friday, August 16th, 12:30-2:10 pm (Room: Mt. Columbia, GH). Please come to the meeting to plan the sessions for next year and participate in other Divisional business. VOL. 18 NO. 2 4 Menah Pratt-Clarke Critical Race, Feminism, and Education: A Social Justice Model (2010), Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.menahprattclarke.com The work represents an almost twenty-five year personal journey for me as a Black woman activist-scholar. With a focus on praxis, the text uses a transdisciplinary approach Ð integrating law, sociology, history, Black feminism, social movement theory, and discourse analysis -- to demonstrate the relationship between the construction of race, class and gender categories and social justice outcomes. In particular, the book demonstrates how marginalized groups are oppressed by the operation of ideologies of power and privilege, including racism, patriarchy, classism, and nationalism within the legal system, the education system, and the media. More broadly, this work sets forth a transdisciplinary applied social justice model (TASJ) that can be used as a tool for scholar-activists to address issues of inequality in society. In the book, I define TASJ as Òthe application of concepts, theories, and methodologies from multiple academic disciplines to social problems with the goal of addressing injustice in society and improving the experiences of marginalized individuals and groups.Ó Part I of the book is ÒSocial Justice in Theory: Framework and Foundation.Ó Part II is ÒSocial Justice in Action: Analysis and Application.Ó As such, this workÕs objective is to facilitate the ability of scholar-activists to engage in informed activism based upon an understanding of the relationship among interwoven identities of race, class, and gender, and interlocking social institutions, including the education system, the legal system, and the media. The ultimate goal is to empower activists to be scholars and scholars to be ac tivists so that social justice initiatives can be strategically implemented with an understanding of the complexity of social dynamics. Member Publications Visiting Professor Position Sociology & Gerontology: Visiting Assistant Professor/Instructor to teach a full load of courses in sociology and social justice, primarily criminology and/or criminal justice courses. Require: ABD (for appointment as instructor); Ph.D, by date of appointment (for appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor) in sociology, criminology or a related field. Desire: experience in teaching and conducting research in sociology, especially criminology. Send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and three letters of recommendation to: Jean Lynch, Ph.D. Department of Sociology and Gerontology, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056 or via email to: lynchjm@muohio.edu. Contact phone number is 513 529 3811. Screening begins April 15, 2012 and will continue until the position is filled. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply. Miami University is an EOE/AA employer with smoke-free campuses.Ê Campus Crime and Safety Report--- www.muohio.edu/righttoknow. Hard Copy upon request.