Southeastern Louisiana University Department Head s Message Fall 2012 Newsletter Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice The 2012-2013 Academic year begins tomorrow and, as we look ahead to another productive year, we would like to say hello and fill you all in on much of what we accomplished last year and share some of our plans for the coming year. In past newsletters we ve encouraged you to get in touch with us and let us know how you re doing so we would like to begin this year s newsletter by acknowledging and sending out greetings to those who have contacted us directly and/or contributed money for the daily operation of the Department: Rodney Simmons, Dr. John Steve Picou, Renee Hebert, Hamilton Mixon. We enjoyed hearing from each of you that you are doing well, we wish you all continued success and encourage you to stay in touch. The last several academic years have been challenging for students, staff and faculty due to budget cuts and program reviews; however, the Department continues to grow and remain extremely busy, as you ll see in the following pages. We ve also developed a series of events and trips this coming year that will continue to give our students the best education possible. The Social Justice Speaker s Series will host its 8 th annual event this November and our student associations continue to be very active on campus hosting speakers, organizing educational events and working on projects with members of local communities. Our faculty continues to exert much energy working with students in the classroom and in independent study classes while developing their professional reputations nationally by researching, publishing and speaking at regional and national conferences. We were saddened by the recent passing of one of our alumni, Dr. Ronald Pedro, and we have said our goodbyes to Dr. Bonnie Lewis and Dr. Anna Kleiner who have left the Department. Our continuing efforts have allowed the Department to grow and remain a vibrant community for the exchange of ideas. As the new academic year begins, we have 621 enrolled majors in our Department representing Criminal Justice as well as the Sociology undergraduate and graduate programs. This is the second largest number of majors in the history of the Department and, with last year s 600 majors, we ve had over 600 majors in back-to-back years for the first time ever. We continue to offer minors in Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Geography, GIS, and Sociology and our classes are in such high demand with students from all over campus that we ve awarded over 100 minors in the last ten years. We look forward to the continuing challenge of working with so many talented students and making sure that we are graduating quality citizens who are prepared for the ever-changing job market and/or graduate school. Thanks again for taking the time to read our newsletter. You can e-mail me at your convenience at kbolton@selu.edu to keep us informed about your recent activities. As always, we encourage you to keep up with the Department on our webpage, www.selu.edu/socj. We still look forward to the day that we have a larger pool of alumni contacts and can host a successful Departmental Alumni event during Southeastern s Homecoming. So, until that day, we encourage you to keep in touch and wish you all the best. Dr. Kenneth Bolton, Jr. Department Head In Fond Remembrance Ronald Ron Pedro, age 70, passed away on June 25, 2012. He completed his studies in Criminal Justice at Southeastern in the summer semester of 2002 after participating in the CJ Study Abroad Program in Costa Rica. He went on to earn several master degrees and a PhD in Criminal Justice Administration before returning to Southeastern as an Adjunct Professor in Criminal Justice for the 2006-2007 academic year. He went on to teach at other universities and was teaching at Southern University of New Orleans at the time of his passing. Ron had an infectious passion for life and for learning and will be missed; those who knew him are better for having had the opportunity to spend time with him.
Goodbyes DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE Faculty Changes Page 2 The faculty and staff of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice would like to send our best wishes to two faculty members who are no longer with us, Dr. Bonnie Lewis and Dr. Anna Kleiner, and extend a warm welcome to our new Instructor of Sociology, Dr. Nicole Youngman. Dr. Bonnie Lewis Dr. Lewis always had a keen interest in making the world a better place; an interest she gained from her hard working parents and grandparents. After her father died, her mother worked in a factory to support her six children, saying: I don t want you to work in a factory--you are going to college. Dr. Lewis studied hard, moved around, and conducted research for many years prior to her arrival at Southeastern in 1990. During her 22 years here, she served as the Director of the Southeastern Social Science Research Center and brought in more than $1 million in grants for research and development projects. She taught both undergraduate and graduate classes specializing most recently in research methods, statistical analysis and complex organizations and was instrumental in the growth and success of our graduate degree program. In 2008 she was rewarded with the President s Award for Excellence in Service to the University in recognition of her dedication to making Southeastern a better place for students to learn how to critically reflect on the world. She will be sorely missed but we hope she enjoys the retirement she deserves. Dr. Anna Kleiner Dr. Kleiner arrived in 2005 with an incredible passion and level of energy that was unmatched in her time at Southeastern. She was instrumental in developing a focus on environmental sociology in our Department and specialized in helping communities survive and transform after experiencing environmental disasters. She utilized a community-based research model that linked the students in the classroom to members of communities who were struggling to make sense of their lives while facing profound problems of entrenched poverty and the impact of an unanticipated disaster. During her seven years here, she was a concerned professor, a prolific researcher and writer, and she dedicated a seemingly endless number of hours in service to the Department and the University. She was a valuable member of the faculty who resigned to pursue her interests as a full-time consultant and we wish her all the best. Welcome Dr. Youngman will begin her tenure in the Department this fall semester and we look forward to benefitting from her experience and collegiality in the coming years. She completed her PhD work in Sociology at Tulane University in New Orleans last year prior to accepting a Visiting Professor position at Loyola University. She specializes in environmental and disaster sociology and conducted her dissertation research on the relationship between the Growth Machines that fostered economic development in New Orleans throughout the 20 th century and the repeated hurricane storm surges that have plagued the city during that time period. She will also be responsible for the implementation of the Early Start initiative in which she will work with local high school teachers to develop sociology classes for college credit at the high school level. We are all excited and look forward to having her in the Department. Dr. Nicole Youngman
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE Social Justice Speaker Series (SJSS) Page 3 Our Social Justice Speaker Series continues to be a hit. The Series is known for cutting edge speakers covering a diverse array of topical subjects. Last year's speaker, Shane Windmeyer, continued this tradition. Shane Windmeyer is a national leader and advacate for gay and lesbian civil rights and co-founder and executive director of Campus Pride, the only national organization for student leaders and groups working to create safer college environments for LGBT students. Shane Widmeyer brought students on stage, dressed them in colorful boas and had them do their best dancing in a very lively and engaging talk to a packed house in Pottle Auditorium on Nov. 2, 2011. Although lively and often fun, Shane's talk, "The Impact of Hate," focused on challenging students to explore prejudices around them as well as their own, and to motivate them to make a difference fighting prejudice and hate in their own communities. Participants were "dared" to take action and fight the roots of prejudice. This year we will host Justin Wedes from Occupy Wall Street (OWS) on October 30th. Justin, an educator and activist based in Brooklyn, NY, is a founding member of the OWS media team and he focuses on social media and harnessing digital networks to connect activists worldwide in struggles for social justice. Since OWS is somewhat of a mystery, Justin will talk about who OWS is, what they are about, and what they are doing now. He will discuss the evolution of the movement in the face of what they see as large public handouts to corporations who were largely responsible for the current recession while citizens were left with only the damages of the economic depression. Justin will discuss this in the context of what he and the movement see as a more engaged democracy. Shane Windmeyer Justin Wedes Graduate Program in Applied Sociology Greetings! The academic year 2011-2012 has been very productive for our Masters of Science in Applied Sociology (MSAS) program. During this time period, six students successfully defended their theses or internship reports and were awarded graduate degrees. In Fall 2011, Dominique Douglas (chaired by Dr. John Boulahanis) successfully defended her internship report. Spring 2012 graduates included: Laura Barth, Daniel Orser (chaired by Dr. Kenneth Bolton), Melinda Jackson, Danielle Stark (chaired by Dr. John Boulahanis) and Wesley Pfeiffer (chaired by Dr. Bonnie Lewis). Congratulations are extended to all our 2011-2012 graduates. Many of our students have been active in the profession by presenting papers at regional and national conferences. Erica Dickerson, Daniel Orser, Tracy Rathbun and Danielle Stark presented papers at the Mid-South Sociological Association annual meeting held in Little Rock, Arkansas. Timothy McCarty and Bonnie May presented research at the Southern Sociological Society conference held in New Orleans. Additionally, Bonnie May attended the National Real Food Challenge Conference, held in Santa Cruz, California. She will be participating in the 2012-2013 Real Food Challenge fellowship program as a Regional Field Organizer for the Southeast. Congratulations to all of their accomplishments and continued success in future endeavors! If you are interested in our MSAS program and/or need additional information, please contact the graduate coordinator, Dr. John Boulahanis, at appliedsociology@selu.edu or (985) 549-2384. Melinda Jackson and Danielle Stark, May 2012 Graduation
Reconnect DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE Student Organization News Students in Reconnect, SELU's environmental and sustainability group, have had one of their busiest years yet! Reconnect has been participating in Real Food Challenge (realfoodchallenge.org), a national campaign where students seek to leverage their collective power to shift 20% of their campus dining food budgets from industrial junk food to food that is local, sustainable, fair, humane, and REAL. To make this happen, Reconnect has focused on educating their college campus about sustainable food by hosting SELU's first farmers market in the Student Union on National Food Day, Oct. 24th 2011. This event was so successful that our department created an internship for one talented student per semester to take on the role as farmer market manager and develop applied organizing skills in running a successful farmers market. Amy Edwards (junior, sociology) held the first farmers market manager internship during the spring semester and Reconnect hosted two farmers markets on March 21st and April 25th, 2012. Besides hosting Southeastern s first farmers markets, students with Reconnect have enjoyed a successful year of recycling promotion, visiting sustainable farms, helping plant a new tree on campus, and working with Russel Evans, SELU s new sustainability manager. Monica Starns, sociology major, speaking at Breaking Ground The Student Government Association also graciously funded four Reconnect students to attend Breaking Ground, Real Food Challenge s first national conference held in Santa Cruz, California from February 17th 20th, 2012! During this conference, students engaged in interactive workshops, skillsharing sessions, campaign meetings, and heard several keynote speakers in the food movement. Most of all, students in Reconnect got the chance to connect with hundreds of other students from across the country to share feedback, skills, ideas, and plans for the future of sustainable, real food at their schools. Southeastern Criminal Justice Association Southeastern Sociological Association Page 4 The SCJA s big event for the year was hosting Voices of Innocence in the Student Union Auditorium in March. VoI is an organization based in New Orleans of former prison inmates who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned, often for decades, for crimes they did not commit, and finally exonerated. They shared their stories with a very engaged audience. The turnout for this event was fantastic and both students and faculty responded very positively to the presentation. Voices of Innocence In the 2011-2012 academic year, the Southeastern Sociological Association (SSA) suffered the loss of some of its most active members for one reason or another and they were sorely missed. Nevertheless, the SSA helped to make the appearance of Social Justice Speaker Shane Windmeyer in November a resounding success. During a private lunch with Windmeyer, SSA members enjoyed receiving input from the speaker on how to better organize the campus to be a safe space for GLBTQ students, faculty and staff. In spring, SSA organized a forum to discuss the difficulties of being a student parent, hosted a well-attended movie showing of Beneath Everest, a film on the Nepal revolution, and sponsored a lecture on how dance has been used to portray political protest. Additionally, SSA members interfaced with and supported the work of other progressive organizations on campus, as demonstrated by the photo of tabling at an Orientation event in the summer of 2012. The Southeastern Criminal Justice Association had an active 2011-2012 year! We continued with our Homicide Discussion Group, wherein students met in Starbucks to discuss various unsolved homicides. We also had several movie nights where we showed movie tie-ins to the Homicide Discussion Group. Students representing SELUSHAN, SSA, and Reconnect
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE Page 5 Student Awards and Scholarships This past year was very busy for the scholarship committee, which awards three Departmental scholarships and works with the University Scholarship Office to identify eligible students for other scholarships created by outside persons and organizations. The recipient of the first Leslie Flucke Memorial Scholarship in Applied Sociology was awarded to Melinda Jackson, a graduate student who earned a MSAS degree in May after completing her thesis entitled, The Media and Underage Drinking and Driving: A Study of Students Perceptions at Southeastern Louisiana University. Melinda has been accepted to the doctoral program in Sociology at Louisiana State University and we wish her all the best. Other recipients of Departmental scholarships are Amber Basset, who receives the Jerry Salomone Endowed Scholarship in Sociology and Bridget Calongne, who receives the Tom Sullenberger Endowed Scholarship in Criminal Justice. Several Criminal Justice majors receive other scholarships and we would like to time the time to recognize their hard work and achievements. The Hammond Police Officers Local Union 345 awards two scholarships each year to one eligible male and one eligible female CJ major from the local area who have maintained at least a 2.5 GPA. This year Anthony Fox and Mandy Sibley were the award recipients. Katie Finckbeiner has been awarded the George and Cecil Bedsole Scholarship and Sean Gowan has been awarded the Richard Kent Scholarship in Criminal Justice. Early in the fall semester the committee will identify candidates to receive the Leslie Flucke graduate scholarship, the Sullenberger scholarship in criminal justice, and the Hammond Police Union scholarship for the 2012-2013 academic year. Students are encouraged to explore these and other scholarship opportunities on our Departmental website. At the April 30 academic honors convocation of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS), two students in the Department received recognition for their academic achievements at Southeastern. Catherine Thurmond received the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award in Sociology, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a 3.857 GPA. Corrine Sander received the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award in Criminal Justice, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a 3.854 GPA. Student Internship Our New Farmers Market Manager Internship! Starting in the Spring 2012 semester, our department developed a Farmers Market Manager Internship. This internship is an exciting opportunity for a talented Sociology major to manage a real farmers market. The internship evolved out of the great success of our university s first farmers market on October 24, 2011, National Food Day, hosted by Reconnect, our student environmental organization, with assistance from several graduate students in Dr. Burley s Applied Environmental Sociology course. The market was originally held to build campus support for Reconnect s efforts to bring local and sustainably produced food into the campus dining services. However, due to a stalemate in negotiations with the university dining vendor, but because of the success of that first market, the farmers market became the best bet to help establish good community, economy and ecology. Thus, the market manager intern applies their sociological skills in coordinating and hosting the two farmers markets that occur each semester. The student intern works with multiple stakeholders in producing a successful market and they gain invaluable experience. Amy Edwards was our first market manager for the spring 2012 semester. Amy says this about her experience: This whole experience has been really rewarding for me. Everybody eats and as far as day jobs go, I can t imagine a better one for me then feeding people. Cecelia Palermo will be the market manager this coming fall. Local chef John Wong from Trey Yuen cooking fresh farm ingredients for student s consumption Ben Burkett, Indian Springs cooperative farmer selling collard greens to students on Food Day, Oct. 24th 2011.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND Page 6 CRIMINAL JUSTICE Geography and Anthropology Anthropology Anthropology courses continue to be popular social science elective options not only for our Sociology and Criminal Justice majors but for all Southeastern students. Students can also earn a minor in Anthropology. This year in Introduction to Physical Anthropology (ANTH 110), which had over twenty CJ majors, students learned how to identify all 206 bones in the human skeleton, how to distinguish male skeletal material from female, and how to identify various types of wounds. The class culminated in the analysis of mock burial sites located around Fayard Hall. Students put their forensic anthropological skills to work to find, record data and identify crime victims. Our on-line Cultural Anthropology (ANTH 101) is offered every semester, including both summer terms. Students complete various field, written and interactive assignments at their own pace in this popular course. Additionally, Dr. McGraw attended a field trip to the MarreSale Polar Research Station (Figure 2) in conjunction TICOP. The Marre-Sale research station located on the Yamal Peninsula and is the oldest research station in Russia. It is famous for its ground ice exposures (Figure 3). Figure 2: Marre-Sale Polar Research Station. Geography The geographers in the department, Dr. Molly McGraw and Mr. Gerald McNeill, have been very busy this past academic year pursuing their respective interests. Dr. McGraw s main interests are within physical geography and geographical information systems, while Mr. McNeill s interests are necrogeography and architectural geography, which fall under the cultural aspects of geography. Dr. Molly McGraw was nominated to serve on the board of the United States Permafrost Association (USPA). The USPA fosters scientific research of permafrost, i.e., frozen ground, in the United States. Permafrost may manifest itself in landforms such as buried ground ice, ice wedges, and patterned ground (Figure 1). Permafrost is found in the Arctic and Antarctic and at high elevations worldwide and is at the forefront of climate change and associated global warming. Figure 3: Ground Ice Exposures Mr. McNeill attended his first SESAH (Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians) meeting in October 2011 held in Charleston, SC. He was nominated as the state of Louisiana representative and now serves on the SESAH board. He attended two study tours: Drayton Hall (Figure 3) and Charleston s Lower Peninsula, a signature single house (Figure 4). Figure 3: Drayton Hall Figure 4: Single House on Charleston s Lower Peninsula During the past academic year, Mr. McNeill also presented A Study in Necrogeography North and South Louisiana Cemeteries at the St. Tammany Library, Covington Branch, and keeping with the Necrogeography theme, he volunteered to paint old ironworks in St. Louis Cemetery #2 (Figure 5) the second oldest existing cemetery in New Orleans. Dr. McGraw presented her research on ponds and lakes in the Colville River Delta located in the Alaskan Arctic this summer at the Tenth International Conference on Permafrost (TICOP) in Salkehard, Russia. Figure 5: Ironworks in St. Louis Cemetery #2
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE Page 7 Southeastern Social Science Research Center Highlights The Southeastern Social Science Research Center (SSSRC) is located in Fayard room 119 and provides research, education, and support to Southeastern students and faculty, as well to the local community. SSSRC specializes in survey research, evaluation, mapping, and participatory, community-based research methodologies. During the Fall semester of 2011, members of the Southeastern Social Science Research Center (SSSRC) participated in the annual Mid-South Sociological Association Conference (MSSA). SSSRC manager Tracy Rathbun, using data collected last fall of a random sample of Tangipahoa voters, took the lead in a paper: School Desegregation: A Case Study of a School Board s Actions in South Louisiana presented at the Mid- South Sociological Association meetings. She also co-authored, with Sociology graduate research assistant Daniel Orser, the paper Teaching Research Methods through Service Learning: Embedding Segregation into the Mix, which was submitted by Dr. Bonnie Lewis. Daniel took the lead on his own presentation and presented his working thesis Student Voices Study for the MSSA conference. In this research, he designed an exploratory study in which he combines video interviewing methods, Paulo Freire s method of dialogue, and Facebook in order to catch a glimpse of the lived realities of Southeastern students. Erica Dickerson, also a Sociology graduate research assistant in SSSRC, presented Counts in Time: Rural Homelessness, which uses data collected through the 2011 Louisiana Point-in- Time Homeless Census. Erica works with the HUD Northlake HMIS Homeless Data Project, an on-going grant at Southeastern that the SSSRC has sponsored for eight years. Danielle Stark, Sociology graduate research assistant and the newest staff member, presented a paper from her evaluation research from last summer, An Evaluation of Objectives, Audience, and Processes of St. Tammany Toys for Tots of Slidell. These students were accompanied by Sociology and Criminal Justice faculty members Dr. Lewis, Dr. John Boulahanis, and Dr. Peter Shrock, all presenting their own research. Graduate students Danielle Stark and Daniel Orser aiding in the telephone surveys. Other recent research and applied sociology activities involving the SSSRC include the following: During the Spring, SSSRC assisted the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment with surveys of Southeastern students either temporarily not enrolled or taking longer than 8 semesters to graduate, in order to better serve our students and enhance school efficiency. The SSSRC received a $150,000 yearly grant, the Northlake Homeless Data Project, directed by Erin Matheny. Erin is the first graduate of the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department's Applied Sociology Master s Degree. Lastly, a graduation party for Danielle and Daniel was recently held to commemorate their successful completion of the M.S. in Applied Sociology program at Southeastern! This summer the SSSRC has collaborated with the Northlake HMIS to design and produce a Statewide Homeless Data Report. Using data from the 2012 Louisiana Point-in-Time Homeless Census, the 2010 United States Census, and other databases, a report was compiled as an overview and in-depth look at homelessness and related factors throughout all of the regions in Louisiana. Daniel Orser, Danielle Stark, Tracy Rathbun, Erica Dickerson, Dr. Peter Shrock, Dr. Bonnie Lewis, and Dr. John Boulahanis at the Mid-South Sociological Association conference The Southeastern Social Science Research Center will be closed temporarily for the Fall semester of 2012 as a search is conducted to find a director to replace Dr. Lewis.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE Page 8 Recent Publications and Selected Faculty Activities Michael G. Bisciglia, in his role as the affiliate director for the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) for the State of Louisiana, attended the 58th National Association for Gifted Children Convention in New Orleans, LA, November 2011; and the 37th Annual Meeting of the FPSPI in Bloomington, IN, June 2012. In June 2012, the FPSPI awarded Bisciglia a Ten Year Service Award. Ken Bolton, Empowering Women in a Disaster Environment: How Feminist Theory May Inform Local Community- Based Participatory Research Projects in the Context of Global Structural Inequality. Presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, March 2012, New Orleans, LA. John Boulahanis organized and presided over a Violence session at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Society, October 2011, Little Rock, AR. John Boulahanis, Examining Exceptional Clearances: A Spatial Distribution of Homicides in Chicago. Presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Mid- South Sociological Society, October 2011, Little Rock, AR. John Boulahanis was awarded an Enhancement Grant for Fear of Crime and Media Exposure: A Pre-and Post- Hurricane Katrina Analysis, funded through Southeastern Louisiana University, Center for Faculty Excellence. David Burley, Losing Ground: Identity and Land Loss in Coastal Louisiana. Closing keynote speech of the Basics of the Basin Conference, October 2011, Hammond, LA. David Burley et al., Imagination Envirostation: Students Connecting Students to Ecological Sustainability. Presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, March 2012, New Orleans, LA. David Burley et al., Taking the Challenge for Real Food: Student Engagement in Procuring Sustainably Produced Food on Campus. Presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, March 2012, New Orleans, LA. Kellen Gilbert, Bonnie May, and David Burley, Reconnecting Students and Farmers. Presented at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, March 2012, Baltimore, MD. Kellen Gilbert was featured on the television program The Florida Parishes Chronicles on the Southeastern Channel in April 2012. Gilbert discussed her research on geophagy, or dirt eating, in Louisiana. Kellen Gilbert presented a talk on Thirty Years of Primate Research in the Middle of the Amazon at the Graduate Seminar Series of Louisiana State University s Department of Biological Sciences Division of Systematics, Ecology and Evolution. Rebecca Hensley, Gendered Sexuality among Youth in the Bible Belt. Presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Association for Humanist Sociology, October 2011, Chicago, IL. Rebecca Hensley, Locked Into the Locked Up. In Stop the Presses! I Want to Get Off! A Brief History of the Rebecca Hensley, Gendered Sexuality among Youth in the Bible Belt. Presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Association for Humanist Sociology, October 2011, Chicago, IL. Rebecca Hensley, Locked Into the Locked Up. In Stop the Presses! I Want to Get Off! A Brief History of the Prisoners Digest International by Joseph W. Grant (Lansing: Michigan State University Press), pp. 133 37. Tracy Rathbun and Bonnie Lewis, School Desegregation: A Case Study of a School Board s Actions in South Louisiana. Presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Society, October 2011, Little Rock, AR. Bonnie Lewis, Tracy Rathbun, and Daniel Orser, Teaching Research Methods through Service Learning: Embedding Segregation into the Mix. Presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Society, October 2011, Little Rock, AR. Molly McGraw and H. J. Walker, Reassessment of Lakes and Ponds in an Arctic River Delta Using Modern Spatial Technology. Presented at the 10th International Conference on Permafrost, June 2012, Salekhard, Russia. Paper of the same title was published in the peerreviewed proceedings of said conference. Molly McGraw was elected to the board of the United States Permafrost Association. Gerald McNeill presented his paper A Study in Necrogeography North and South Louisiana Cemeteries at St. Tammany Library, Covington Branch, October 2011, Covington, LA. Gerald McNeill attended the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) Conference as a Board Member (Louisiana State Representative), October 2011, Charleston, SC. He attended two study tours, a tour of Charleston s Lower Peninsula and the Drayton Hall Study Tour. Gerald McNeill was a volunteer for Save Our Cemeteries in New Orleans Painted Cemetery Ironworks in St. Louis #2 Cemetery (second oldest existing cemetery in New Orleans), December 2011 Marc Riedel published Homicide, a detailed annotated bibliography from Oxford Bibliographies Online in May 2011. Marc Riedel and Gwen Hunnicut published Homicide Victimization, a detailed annotated bibliography from Oxford Bibliographies Online published April 2012. Marc Riedel, Getting Away with Murder: A Review of Arrest Clearances, in Violence: Do We Know it When We See It? ed. Dee Wood Harper, Lydia Voigt, and William E. Thornton (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2012). Peter Shrock, Claims-Making as Class Power. Presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Society, October 2011, Little Rock, AR. Peter Shrock presided over a session on Poverty and Power (lessness) at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Society, October 2011, Little Rock, AR. Peter Shrock, Fuzzy Boundaries: David Duke in Mainstream News Media. Presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, March 2012, New Orleans, LA. Contact us! www.selu.edu/socj / Ph: (985) 549-2110 / or email Dr. Kenneth Bolton, Jr., kbolton@selu.edu