Message from the Chair
Fall 2009
As the new Chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, I welcome you to our website.
To familiarize yourself with the Department, I encourage you to consult the newsletters available on our website. Professors Janet Lauritsen and Beth Huebner collaborate to produce an informative newsletter that highlights a number of activities and achievements each year. As you will read in the current newsletter, the Department continues to exert a strong presence within the discipline. Bob Bursik is a former President of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and Rick Rosenfeld is the current President of the ASC. Jody Miller was elected to serve a three-year term as an Executive Counselor of ASC and Richard Wright was recognized as an ASC Fellow at this year’s Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. A number of other faculty accomplishments are detailed elsewhere on this website.
On the local front, we began this new academic year with two new faculty members: Terrance J. (TJ) Taylor (Ph.D., University of Nebraska), joins the faculty as a tenure-track Assistant Professor and Kristy Matsuda (Ph.D. University of California, Irvine) joins the faculty as Assistant Research Professor. We are very pleased to welcome these colleagues. Additionally, Beth Huebner has been granted tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. Beth has assumed the role of Director of the CCJ Graduate Program and will oversee both the MA and Ph.D. programs.
Our graduate students are also productive and being recognized for their efforts. Amanda Gendon was named one of the recipients of the 2009 Graduate Minority Fellowship by the American Society of Criminology; Tiffany Polk and Allan Shamow were selected for the 2009 ICPSR Summer Course on Quantitative Analysis of Crime and Criminal Justice Data, supported by fellowships from the Bureau of Justice Statistics; and Jennifer Owens received this year's Richard Block Award from the Homicide Research Working Group. And, the Department was well represented at the Annual Meetings of the American Society of Criminology; 14 students made research presentations at the 2009 conference. We also have significant presence at other national and international conferences (ACJS, BJS/JRSA, ESC).
Four graduate students also found jobs in the very competitive academic job market this past year. Mark Berg is now an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis; Jennifer Cobbina has joined the faculty at the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University; and Brad Brick and Kim Martin joined the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at Old Dominion University.
In closing, I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Richard Wright who just completed his second term as Department Chair. Under his guidance, the Department has prospered and solidified its place as one of the premier CCJ programs in the country.
If you have questions, I would be happy to hear from you by phone (314) 516 4619 or email esbensen@umsl.edu.
For information about the Undergraduate program contact Dr. Tim Maher at (314) 516-5026, or mahert@umsl.edu.
For information about the Masters program or our Ph.D program contact Dr. Beth Huebner at (314) 516-5043, or huebnerb@umsl.edu.
I hope that you enjoy your visit to our website and we look forward to hearing from you!
Dr. Finn-Aage Esbensen, Chair
E. Desmond Lee Professor of Youth Crime and Violence