Faculty Notes

(Published in @John Jay on December 10, 2008) On Board Michelle Rahmeh (Physical Education and Athletics) was named as the College’s new head athletic trainer. Rahmeh, a New Jersey native who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Akron, brings to the position a diverse résumé in the fields of health, health education and physical therapy. Presenting… Elizabeth Hegeman (Anthropology) spoke at the American Red Cross on November 13 on "Post-Traumatic Growth: Organizational and Individual Perspectives." She addressed the issues of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction for mental health workers facing disaster. Simon Baatz (History) gave the annual Lawrence J. Gutter Literary Lecture at North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, IL, in November. Anissa Hélie (History) was recently invited by the University of the Philippines, in Manila, to lecture on issues of religious fundamentalism and present research undertaken by the group Women Living Under Muslim Laws. The lecture, “The Great Ancestors: Women Asserting Rights in Muslim Contexts,” highlighted the lives and deeds of women throughout history who have promoted gender equality in diverse Muslim countries and communities, including the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Muslim Spain, India, Pakistan, Algeria, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia, Nigeria and Indonesia. Stephen Handelman (Center on Media, Crime and Justice) appeared on the CUNY TV “Independent Sources” program on December 3, where he discussed the New York City Police Department’s press accreditation policies. In October, Handelman delivered a talk on U.S. media and criminal justice issues to a group of more than 100 army, police and security officials from Latin America and the Caribbean — this year’s class of the InterAmerican Defense College — at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas in New York. Between the Covers Kimora (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) authored an article titled “T he Bard Prison Initiative: Excellent Example of Empowering Education behind the Walls that Needs to Be Replicated,” which will appear in the January/February 2009 issue of Offender Programs Report, a publication from the Civic Research Institute. Kimora’s book Prison: Getting Out by Going In (Instructor's Manual) will be published in December 2008. She wrote the book to provide a teaching tool for correctional educators who work with offenders at the Century Detention Center in Lynwood, CA. Monica Varsanyi (Government) published a paper in the December 2008 issue of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the flagship journal in the academic field of geography. Her paper, “Rescaling the ‘Alien,’ Rescaling Personhood:

Neoliberalism, Immigration and the State,” was the lead article in the journal’s human geography subsection. Eugene O’Donnell (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) published a commentary, “Shot in the Dark: Why Was Crime Overlooked in This Campaign,” in the November 3 issue of Newsweek magazine. The article, which appeared just before the recent presidential election, said “it would be a crime” for the next President not to make criminal justice matters a priority. Peer Review Isabelle Curro (Security) was named winner of the 2009 Commitment to Justice Award for Outstanding Solo Practitioner by inMotion, an organization that provides low-income women with free legal services in matrimonial, family and immigration law. Curro, an attorney, was cited for her “commitment to pro bono legal services.” The award will be formally presented at a gala in early February.

(Published in @John Jay on November 19, 2008) On Board Diane Ramirez (Physical Education and Athletics) was named head coach of women’s basketball and equipment manager. Ramirez is a 2007 graduate of Baruch College, where she served as assistant women’s basketball coach for the past two seasons, and played for three seasons prior to that. Between the Covers Wanda Fernandopulle (Career Development) had her biography of Richard Allen, one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, published in a first-time, eight-volume print edition of the African American National Biography (AANB). The AANB, published by the Du Bois Institute at Harvard University and the Oxford University Press, is the largest collective biography of African Americans ever produced and is already recognized as the standard in the field. Howard Pflanzer (Communication and Theatre Arts) had a review/commentary, “Existential Affairs,” a look at Edward and Kate Fullbrook’s book Sex and Philosophy: Rethinking De Beauvoir and Sartre, published in the October 2008 CUNY Graduate Center Advocate. His review of Robert Roth’s book Health Proxy was published in the volume Cultural Logic 2007. In addition, two of his poems recently appeared in the literary magazine And Then. Presenting… George Andreopoulos (Government) presented a paper on “The Regulation of Corporate Activities Under Human Rights Treaties” at the annual conference of the International Academy of Business and Economics in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 19-22. The paper was co-authored with Giuliana Campanelli and Alexandros Panayides of William Paterson University. Adina Schwartz (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) presented “ ‘I Know It When I See It’ and Criminalistics” at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Association of Forensic Scientists meeting on October 3, during a general session on “Debating the Forensic Science in Forensic Science.” On October 23, Schwartz made a Continuing Legal Education presentation on “Firearms & Tool Marks” at the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association’s annual forensics seminar in Dallas, TX. Roy Perham (Psychology) presented a workshop, “A Two-Stage Assessment Center that Brought ALL Employees to a Higher Level of Performance,” at the 34th International Congress on Assessment Center Methods in Washington, DC, on September 24. Kimora (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) addressed a group of students from the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Campus about self-esteem enhancement and choosing an academic career over criminal activity on October 15.

Peer Review Miriam Ehrenberg (Psychology), in her role as executive director of the Institute for Human Identity (a nonprofit psychotherapy center in Manhattan), was awarded a grant from the New York State Department of Health for Family Q, a five-year innovative program that offers free workshops to gay and lesbian parents and prospective parents on the emotional issues involved in alternate family building. The grant also provides counseling training for selected interns on the special issues such parents face in raising families. (Students who might be interested in applying for the program should visit www.ihi-therapycenter.org/familyq and contact Professor Ehrenberg.)

(Published in @John Jay on October 29, 2008)

Presenting… M. Victoria Pérez-Ríos (Government) presented a paper, “On the Effectiveness of International Tribunals (ICTY and ICTR),” at the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Boston, MA, August 28-31. She also presented two papers — “Investing in Renewable Energies: Are Some Third-Generation Human Rights More than Wishful Thinking?” and “Accountability for Disappearances: The Role of Regional Courts” — at the annual meeting of the Research Committee on Sociology of Law in Milan-Como, Italy, in July. Rosemary Barberet (Sociology) and Andrés Rengifo, a graduate of the PhD program in criminal justice and currently an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, were part of a Commission of Independent Experts selected by the Colombian statistics agency, DANE, to evaluate crime statistics produced by the National Police of Colombia, from September 15-19.

Between the Covers Simon Baatz (History) wrote “Criminal Minds” for the August 2008 issue of Smithsonian magazine. The article is an excerpt of his book For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago. Mangai Natarajan (Sociology) had her newest book, Women Police in a Changing Society: Back Door to Equality, published by Ashgate Publishing in September 2008. The book focuses on a unique and highly successful experiment begun in Tamil Nadu, India, in 1992, in which all-female police units were established as a way of enhancing the confidence and professionalism of woman officers. Kimora (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) was named contributing editor of Getting Out by Going In (GOGI), a monthly newsletter published by a nonprofit organization of the same name. GOGI educates federal, state and juvenile offenders in California and Arizona. In addition, Professor Kimora wrote the foreword for Mara Leigh Taylor's book Women in Prison: Women Finding Freedom. In May, Kimora visited female inmates at the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood, CA, where she spoke about the importance of the GOGI program. Lori L. Martin (African-American Studies) had several publications in 2008 including an article titled “Cashing in on the American Dream,” which examined racial differences in housing values over the past few decades. The article appeared in the journal Housing, Theory and Society. Martin also co-authored an article with Hayward Derrick Horton, “Critical Demography and the Measurement of Racism,” as well as a book, Non-Married Women and Asset Ownership that explores differences in the types and levels of assets owned by non-married black and white women.

Margaret Wallace (Sciences) recently published “Forensic Science: The Interface between Science and the Law” in the Korean Journal of Scientific Criminal Investigation. The article discussed the role of molecular biology on forensic science and emphasized DNA-based methods of identification in human, botanical and entomological samples. Edward Snajdr (Anthropology) had his book, Nature Protests: The End of Ecology in Slovakia published by Washington University Press. The ethnographic study investigates why Slovakia’s ecology movement, so strong under socialism, fell apart so rapidly despite the persistence of serious environmental problems in the region. James Cauthen (Government) and Barry Latzer (Government) co-authored an article, "Why so Long? Explaining Processing Time in Capital Appeals," which appeared in Justice System Journal, a publication of the National Center for State Courts. Their research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice. Barry Luby (Emeritus, Foreign Languages & Literatures) recently published a new book, The Uncertainties in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Analytic Thought: Miguel de Unamuno the Precursor. The work was published in September by Juan de la Cuesta-Hispanic Monographs.

Peer Review Susan Opotow (Sociology) was presented with the Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award at the 2008 American Psychological Association Convention in Boston this past August. The award, presented by the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence (Division 48 of the APA) recognizes Opotow “for her outstanding contributions as a scholar, teacher, and mentor.”

(Published in @John Jay on October 8, 2008) Peer Review Jeremy Travis (President) was named chair of the New York State Juvenile Justice Task Force by the Hon. David Paterson, Governor of New York State. Over the coming year, the newly constituted task force is charged with developing strategies for transforming the state’s juvenile justice system and developing what Travis hopes will be “a more comprehensive and less punitive approach” to handling juvenile offenders. Maria Volpe (Sociology) won the 2008 Lawrence Cooke Peace Innovator Award, presented by the New York State Dispute Resolution Association in collaboration with the New York State Unified Court System Office of ADR and Court Improvement Programs. Volpe will also be the honoree at the Network for Peace Through Dialogue recognition night on October 30 in New York City. Wanda Fernandopulle (Student Development) was selected as an Association for Institutional Research Fellow for the upcoming National Conference on First-Year Assessment, to be held October 12-14 in San Antonio, Texas. Joseph King (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) won the 2008 Roberta Thornton Award, presented by the CUNY Graduate Center’s PhD Alumni Association in recognition of his outstanding achievement as a criminal justice practitioner and scholar. Presenting… Keith A. Markus (Psychology) spent five weeks visiting the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, on an Erskine Fellowship to work with Professor Brian Haig on a joint methodological research project. While there, he presented a colloquium on "Construct Validity and Causal Modeling." Closer to home, at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston, Markus presented a poster titled “Abductive Inferences to Psychological Variables: Weighting Competing Criteria” coauthored by Samuel W. Hawes, a John Jay alumnus, and Rula J. Thasites, a current John Jay student. Janice Bockmeyer (Government) presented her paper, “The Politics of Supra-local Nonprofits: Do ‘Good Practices’ Reset the Community Metacenter?” on a panel discussing Local Networks, Race, Immigration and Identity at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in August. Larry Sullivan (Library) taught a four-day seminar on elite deviance to government officials at St. John’s College in Belize City, Belize, in March. He also gave a lecture on community justice at the National Police Academy in Belmopan, Belize, on March 12. He presented the paper, “Family Values and Domestic Violence: The Polish Paradigm,” at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in Cincinnati in March. This paper was based on research he did at Warsaw University on a Kosciuszko Foundation grant.

Between the Covers Elise Langan (Government) published an article on “Assimilation and Affirmative Action in French Education Systems” in the fall 2008 issue of European Education. She was named a visiting scholar at New York University's Center for European Studies. Kimora (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) published an article titled “The Punishment Potlach: A Way Out” in the fall 2008 issue of Insights, a publication of the Offender Preparation and Education Network Inc. In the article, Kimora and her coauthor, attorney Mark Hazelbaker, contend that this punishment potlach in the United States has ignored the cost of criminal justice, and they advocate an aggressive program of intervention for incarcerated individuals. Larry Sullivan (Library) had his article “Prison is Dull Today: Prison Libraries and the Irony of Pious Reading” published in the May 2008 issue of PMLA, the journal of the Modern Language Association. His review essay of The Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress appeared in the April 2008 issue of Library Quarterly. Keith A. Markus (Psychology) recently published an article contrasting alternative causal interpretations of statistical models, titled “Hypothesis Formulation, Model Interpretation and Model Equivalence: Implications of a Mereological Causal Interpretation of Structural Equation Models” in the summer 2008 issue of the journal Multivariate Behavioral Research. A recent issue of the journal Measurement included his article “Constructs, Concepts and the Worlds of Possibility: Connecting the Measurement, Manipulation, and Meaning of Variables,” as well as his rejoinder “Putting Concepts and Constructs into Practice: A Reply to Cervone and Caldwell, Haig, Kane, Mislevy, and Rupp.” Markus also published a critique titled “Abductive Inferences to Psychological Variables: Steiger’s Question and Best Explanations of Psychopathy,” in the summer 2008 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology. The critique was coauthored by John Jay alumnus Samuel W. Hawes and current student Rula J. Thasites.

(Published in @John Jay on September 17, 2008) PRESENTING… Gloria Proni (Sciences) presented a paper entitled "Chiral Recognition by a CDsensitive dimeric porphyrin host: Recent Advances in the assignment of absolute configuration" at the 235th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition, April 6-10, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The work was done in collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Nina Berova in the Chemistry Department of Columbia University. Later in the spring, Dr. Proni presented a research talk, “Detection of Opioids in Urine by NMR Spectroscopy: Preliminary Studies” at the 40th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM), May 17–21 in Bayside, Queens. Donna Wilson, a forensic science graduate student, worked on this project as a fulfillment of her thesis requirement. The work was conducted jointly with Elise Champeil (Sciences). In late August, Proni presented a poster titled “Synthesis and Chiral Recognition of a Fish Pheromone by CD-Sensitive Dimeric Zinc Porphyrin Host” at the American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in Philadelphia. Ekaterina Chadwick, an undergraduate forensic science student, coauthored the presentation. Effie Papatzikou Cochran (English) was the lead discussant on a panel titled “Four Interrogating Concepts and Cases: Family, Law, and Language” at the Law and Society Annual Conference in Montreal, Canada, on May 31. Abby Stein (Interdisciplinary Studies) spoke at the International Psychohistorical Association on June 4 at Fordham University. Her presentation was titled, “From His Cradle to Your Grave: How Child Abuse Drives Violent Crime.” Stein also served as the invited “Critical Issues” columnist for the spring issue of ISSTD News, published by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation's publication. Her column focused on “First Defense: Dissociated States and Criminal Violence.” R. Terry Furst (Anthropology) presented a paper, “A Qualitative Exploration of an Office-Based Buprenorphine Demonstration Program in New York City,” at the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) in Boston. He also presented “A Harm Reduction Approach to the Provision of Bupernorphine” at the conference for the Developments in the Treatment of Dependence on Opiate: Practices and Perspectives, in France, and co-authored “Low Threshold Buprenorphine Prescribing,” a paper presented at the International Harm Reduction Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Elise Champeil and Gloria Proni (Sciences) co-authored the lecture “Use of NMR Spectroscopy for the Detection of Opioids in Human Fluids” that was presented at the American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in Philadelphia in late August. Donna Wilson, a recent graduate of the master’s degree program in forensic science, worked on this project as a fulfillment of her thesis requirement.

BETWEEN THE COVERS Benjamin Lapidus (Art and Music) will have his new book, Origins of Cuban Music and Dance: Changüí, published by The Scarecrow Press on October 28. The book is the first in-depth study of changüí, a style of music and dance in Guantánamo, Cuba, that contributed to the development of salsa. Kimora (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) and Michael Aman (Communication and Theatre Arts) co-authored an article, “No Country for Old Men: Psychopathic Elements in an Academy-Award-Winning Film,” in which they stress the importance of criminal justice professionals learning elements of psychopathy from the film. The article appeared in the July/August issue of Community Corrections Report on Law and Corrections Practice. PEER REVIEW Robert Garot (Sociology) has won a faculty fellowship for the spring 2009 semester at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College. The fellowship will help facilitate Garot’s research project on “Immigrants and the Law in Contemporary Tuscany.” Allison Kavey (History) has been awarded a $15,000 faculty development grant by the City University of New York to fund her proposal, “Teaching Portfolios: An Analysis of their Uses for History Pedagogy.”

(Published in @John Jay on August 27, 2008) ON BOARD Laura Drazdowski (Physical Education and Athletics) was appointed head coach of the John Jay women’s softball team. Drazdowski, the College’s Assistant Director of Athletics for Marketing and Promotion, served as interim softball coach for the 2008 season, leading the team to a 12-23 record and a fourth place finish in conference play. “After the hard work the team and I put in last season, I am thrilled to be continuing on the path of success that started last February,” she said. Over the summer, John Jay added two other new head coaches. Carl Nedell was named head women’s tennis coach, succeeding Amy Rowland, who resigned earlier this year. Nedell had previously coached the John Jay men’s tennis team during the 2000 season, and has also coached for Hunter College, James Monroe High School and Forest Hills High School. Jessica Kolackovsky will serve as interim head coach of the women’s swimming team for the 2008-09 season, filling in for Jane Katz, who will be on sabbatical. Kolackovsky served as a volunteer assistant coach under Katz last season, and also serves as the College’s head lifeguard. She was a Big East Conference Academic All-Star as an undergraduate swimmer at Seton Hall University. BETWEEN THE COVERS Andrew Sidman (Government) has an article, “Forecasting Non-Incumbent Presidential Elections: Lessons Learned from the 2000 Election,” due out in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Forecasting. Sidman also has 12 entries in the recently published Encyclopedia of U.S. Campaigns, Election, and Electoral Behavior (Sage, 2008). Mary Gibson (History) received a Senior Fulbright Research Grant and a National Endowment for the Humanities' Fellowship to finish a book on the history of prisons in modern Italy. Her article “Ai margini della cittadinanza: le detenute dopo l’Unità italiana (1860-1915) [At the Margins of Citizenship: Women Prisoners after Italian Unification]” was recently published in the journal Storia delle Donne [Women’s History]. Nathan Lents (Sciences) had his manuscript “Identification and Characterization of a Novel Mdm2 Splice Variant Acutely Induced by the Chemotherapeutic Agents Adriamycin and Actinomycin D” published in the journal Cell Cycle in June. Danielle Sapse (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration), Elise Champeil and Anne-Marie Sapse (Sciences), working in collaboration with two professors from the University of Rouen, France, had their paper "Interaction of DNA Fragments with Methyl Lithium" accepted for publication in the journal Comptes Rendus des Seances de L' Academie Francaise. The paper applies theoretical methods to the study of DNA fragments interaction with methyl lithium and its possible use for criminal investigation.

Kimora (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) and Michael Aman (Speech, Theatre and Media Studies) co-authored an article, “No Country for Old Men: Psychopathic Elements in an Academy-Award-Winning Film,” in which they stress the importance of criminal justice professionals learning elements of psychopathy from the film. The article appeared in the July/August issue of Community Corrections Report on Law and Corrections Practice. PRESENTING… Margaret Wallace (Sciences) was an invited speaker at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Korean Academy of Scientific Criminal Investigation. Wallace’s presentation on “Forensic Science: the Interface between Scientific and the Law” discussed the role of forensic biology in human identification and genotyping of botanical and entomological samples. Wallace was also appointed Foreign Editor of the Journal of the Korean Academy of Scientific Criminal Investigation by the president of the academy. Janice Bockmeyer (Government) moderated the roundtable “Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding at 40: The Midlife Crisis of Community Participation?” at the annual meeting of the Urban Affairs Association in Philadelphia in late April. The roundtable explored the impacts of federal community development policies in the 40 years since the War on Poverty urban initiatives. Edgardo Diaz Diaz (Foreign Languages) addressed a full house of doctoral students and faculty members at the University of Padova, Italy, on April 22. Diaz, an ethnomusicologist, spoke about the meaning and influence of Italian opera in the Caribbean. Kimora (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) spoke to members of the Correctional Services Division of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on May 23, about the educational needs of adult offenders and the programs funded by the National Institute of Corrections. M. Victoria Pérez-Ríos (Government) presented a paper on “Western Bias in International Law: Francisco de Vitoria’s Writings and the Third World School” at the International Studies Association Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA, in late March. Abby Stein (Interdisciplinary Studies) spoke at the International Psychohistorical Association conference on June 4 at Fordham University. Her presentation was titled “From His Cradle to Your Grave: How Child Abuse Drives Violent Crime.” Stein also served as the invited “Critical Issues” columnist for the spring issue of ISSTD News, published by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. Her column focused on “First Defense: Dissociated States and Criminal Violence.”

PEER REVIEW Maria Hartwig (Psychology) received the "Early Career Award" from the European Association of Psychology & Law, for "her excellent track-record in peer reviewed papers in international journals and chapters in national and international volumes, and for being an inspiring example showing how a young researcher from a small place can find her way to a top position in the international arena.” Peter Dodenhoff (Institutional Advancement) recently completed the requirements for his U.S. Coast Guard merchant captain’s certification. The entry-level license, awarded on the basis of experience, test scores, fitness, character references and other criteria, allows the for-hire operation of merchant and recreational vessels in U.S. coastal waters, including charters and yacht deliveries.