Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Women's & Gender Studies News
Faculty News | Student News | Class News
Lisa Johnson, Director of the Center for Women's and Gender Studies, attended a conference called Rethinking Marxism: New Marxian Times, hosted by the Association for Economic and Social Analysis at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where she presented a paper titled "Dirty South: Queer Affect, Ludic Feminism, Materialist Praxis (and the Politics of TrapMusic)" as part of a series of panels addressing sexual politics under late capitalism. She used "trap music" (music about the 'dope' trade) as a vehicle through which to think about the politics of transgression in women's and gender studies as an academic discipline.
Laura Jennings, assistant professor of Sociology, had her poster titled, “Place Settings: Social Aspects of the Body Image/Eating Relationship," accepted for presentation at the Carolina Women’s Health Research Forum, to be held at USC Columbia on October 30, 2009.
Brent Metcalf, instructor of Criminal Justice, has been selected as the president of the South Carolina Probation and Parole Association. The association is a professional organization of federal, state, and nonprofit community based correctional officials serving the state of South Carolina. Brent is the former Agent-In-Charge of the State Probation and Parole Office in Spartanburg. He currently serves as an United States Probation Officer serving the United States District Court, District of South Carolina.
Lisa Johnson, Director of the Center for Women's and Genders Studies, delivered a lecture titled, “Bottled Up,” sponsored by the Spartanburg Youth Council. Her lecture, which dealt with the cross-addictions between substance abuse and romantic infatuation, was held at the Spartanburg County Public and was attended by school counselors, local addiction counselors, public school teachers, and nonprofit organization directors.
Criminal justice instructor Robert Daly has been retained by the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York to testify as an expert witness in an upcoming case in the Federal District Court in Manhattan. Daly’s testimony will focus on contemporary correctional standards governing the force in an institutional setting. In this case, an inmate alleges that a correctional officer and other staff members assaulted him without cause. Daly will be testifying on behalf of a correctional officer, who claims he was attacked by the inmate and that he acted properly in restraining the inmate. Daly has a law degree from St. John’s University School of Law. He has extensive experience working with the New York City Department of Correction, including serving as Director of the Legal Division, General Counsel, and Acting First Deputy Commissioner. Daly currently serves as an expert witness on the use of force and prison security for the New York State Attorney General. He is qualified as a corrections expert in the Federal District Courts.
Dr. Brigitte Neary, associate professor of Sociology, has published an online review of In 1945 They Were Children: Flight and Expulsion in the Life of a Generation by Alena Wagnerova and Julie Winter.
Dr. Neary has also been honored as the 2009 recipient of Menschenrechtspreis der Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben (Human Rights Award of the Ethnic German Danube Suevians). The Award will be conferred December 10 in Stuttgart, Germany. In his letter of recommendation on behalf of Brigitte’s nomination, Dr. Alfred de Zayas of The Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, and the 2007 recipient of this award, wrote: “Professor Neary has done ground-breaking work on women’s issues and has demonstrated academic courage in addressing the hitherto neglected history of the expulsion of millions of German civilians from their home at the end of World War II. In so doing she has on both sides of the Atlantic illuminated the sociological, psychological, historical, and legal aspects of this form of ethnic cleansing. …The work of Dr. Neary should contribute to a realization that all forms of ethnic cleansing are fundamentally wrong, and that the inhumanities of the expulsions of innocent Germans [from] 1944-50 should be taught in all high schools and universities – not only in Germany and Austria, but also in the United States and Canada.”
Dr. Calvin Odhiambo, assistant professor ofSociology, has had his workshop presentation, titled “The Risks of Cardiovascular Disease among African Americans who are HIV Positive” accepted for The United States Conference on AIDS, October 29-31, 2009 in San Francisco, CA.
Dr. Lizabeth Zack, assistant professor of Sociology, published a review of American Empire and the Politics of Meaning: Elite Political Cultures in the Philippines and Puerto Rico during U.S. Colonialism, reviewed in the May 2009 issue of Contemporary Sociology.
Dr. Reid Toth, assistant professor of criminal justice, was interviewed on the local news on Tuesday, July 7 regarding the recent Gaffney serial killer case. She did an excellent job, of course, and the interview can be seen at WSPA’s Web site.
A chapter from Dr. Lisa Johnson’s, Center for Women's and Gender Studies, book Third Wave Feminism and Television: Jane Puts It in a Box (Reading Contemporary Television), entitled “Ladies Love Your Box: The Rhetoric of Pleasure and Danger in Feminist Television Studies,” has been reprinted in the recently published anthology, Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approaches by Peter Lang Publishing (May 2009).
Dr. Clif Flynn, profesor of Sociology, has published a chapter in Women-Battering, Pet Abuse, and Human-Animal Relationships in Andrew Linzey (Ed.), The Link between Animal Abuse and Human Violence. Sussex Academic Press, 2009.)
Dr. Laura Jennings, assistant professor Sociology, has a book chapter coming out in print this fall. “Public Fat: Canadian Provincial Governments and Fat on the Web.” in Esther Rothblum, Sondra Solovay, and Marilyn Wann (Eds.), Fat Studies Reader. New York University Press. (Forthcoming, Nov. 2009).
Dr. Jennifer Parker, associate professor of psychology, and Dr. Diane Daane (at left), professor of criminal justice, participated in the Child Advocacy Studies Conference at the National Child Protection Training Center on the Winona State University campus in Winona, Minn. this July. Only 40 professors from 20 colleges and universities nationwide were selected to attend this conference, which is designed to assist universities in developing an interdisciplinary professional curriculum to prepare graduates to pursue a career in child protection and related fields.
Dr. Daane has also published two chapters “Victim Response to Sexual Assault” and “The Ripple Effect: Secondary Sexual Assault Survivors” in Frances P. Reddington and Betsy Wright Kreisel (Eds.), Sexual Assault: The Victims, the Perpetrators, and the Criminal Justice System, 2nd ed., Carolina Academic Press, Durham, NC. (August 2009).
Dr. Calvin Odhiambo, assistant professor of sociology, attended the Summer Institute Program to Increase Diversity (SIPID) in Cardiovascular Health Disparities Research. The Institute was held at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY from July 12-25.
Dr. Clif Flynn Receives USC Upstate's Annual Award to Faculty for Scholarly and/or Creative Pursuits
Dr. Clif Flynn, chair of the Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Women’s Studies at the University of South Carolina Upstate received the Annual Award to Faculty for Scholarly and/or Creative Pursuits at the University’s May Commencement Exercises on May 5. This award sponsored by Bank of America honors faculty members who have made an impact within their fields of expertise. Read more...
Faculty News Archive...