Teaching

I teach an array of courses, but what I think stands out about my teaching is my style and philosophy.  As a white male outsider in Hawai‘i I recognize my responsibility to mitigate power differentials in the classroom, and bridge the robust social distance that often stands between me and my students.  I try to do this by considering the full lives that students lead as well as their humanity in my teaching and course design. 

As an undergraduate, I felt alienated myself by the formal and authoritarian nature of university bureaucracy, so I try to create an alternative environment in my courses.  I do this by sharing power with students and designing courses that integrate experiential learning.  The latter to me means using assignments and activities that encourage students to learn social sciences by doing them in small research activities that ask students to explore their everyday lives and contemporary events with social science research tools.  Such activities are often coupled with group work in which students share and attempt to synthesize research findings.  I find this approach more fruitful than the traditional ‘banking’ approach that seeks to simply transmit knowledge from educators and scholars to students.

Research

My research is inspired by the traditions of feminist criminology and critical media studies.  I majored in journalism as an undergraduate, but quickly became disillusioned with contemporary corporate media.  When I entered a graduate program in criminology, examining the relationship between justice and media was a logical fit.  Later in my studies I had the good fortune to study with feminist criminologists like Meda Chesney-Lind, Kim Cook, and Katherine Irwin.  The courage, integrity, and vision of these women inspired me to do feminist work that examines the world through an intersectional lens.  If I am mentioning mentors I should also acknowledge David T. Johnson and Walter Dekeseredy who have not only shaped my thinking but also exemplified the kindness and collegiality that I seek to exhibit in my career.

I employ multiple methods in my work, but most often use case study approaches to examine how media coverage evolves and is negotiated, particularly across media platforms.  I am interested in how media coverage and social media discourse shape the politics of crime and justice in our world, particularly how such dynamics inspire punitive cultural currents and resistance to such phenomena.  While my research is topically diverse, the common thread that underpins my program is hegemonic violence, that is violence that secures and reproduces the status quo.  I seek to understand how and why we justify such social action in a world that is so clearly flawed in fundamental ways, which cause enormous harm to everyday people.

Personal

I am an avid surfer and lover of the ocean.  I live in Hawai‘i, among other reasons, because of the unique ocean experiences it offers, the most obvious of which is the best surf in the world.  While I am passionate about my career, I am equally passionate about being in and around the ocean.  I have found that this outlet allows me to shed the anxiety, fear, depression, sadness, etc. that can build up quickly in a career spent studying violence and injustice.  Long ago Karl Marx pointed out that laboring under a capitalist system is alienating, that it makes us feel disconnected from ourselves and others.  Being in the ocean allows me to reconnect with myself and the natural beauty of this world that is too often juxtaposed by ugly human behavior.