Department Newsletter, Spring 2019
Message from the Chair
Department Spotlights
Department Announcements
Alumni Updates/Class Notes
Donor Recognition
Message from the Chair
The Department of Sociology had another exciting year, full of interesting speakers and achievements! The fall semester again featured a Dean’s Lecture Series by a diverse group of sociologists, this time on the theme of “Emerging Scholarship in Criminology.” We are pleased to announce that one of the speakers, Dr. Carlos Bustamante, will be joining our faculty as an assistant professor in fall 2020. Dr. Bustamante is currently on a postdoctoral fellowship at SUNY-Albany to write a book on Punishing Play: Policing of Restricted Entertainment in Oakland, California, Lima, Peru, and Stockholm, Sweden. A panel of our faculty members—Daina Eglitis, Michelle Kelso and Steve Tuch—also turned a sociological lens on historical and contemporary issues in Eastern Europe based on their research in the region. This was co-sponsored with the Institute for European, Russia, and Eurasian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs. As you may notice, our sociology is increasingly international.
We had other lectures this fall. Dalton Conley, professor of sociology at Princeton and Fellow at the Wilson Center this year, gave an informative lecture about the impact of genes on socioeconomic attainment, one of the first times that the department partnered with faculty from genomics and bioethics. And for criminology fans, Professor Stefano Bloch from the University of Arizona spoke about graffiti writing. This spring, we hosted talks by Professor Jean Beaman of Purdue on second-generation immigrants in France; Mark Rudd, the former Students for a Democratic Society activist; and Visiting Assistant Professor RJ Maratea on his new book. After a successful first colloquium last spring on Bottom-Up Politics with practitioners at the Wilson Center, Greg Squires and I co-organized a second panel discussion there in March with Professors Manuel Pastor, Theda Skocpol, William Spriggs, and Margaret Weir. In April, our esteemed alumna, Juliette Lippman, president of the Florida Bar Association, organized a panel on “Equal Justice: The Indispensable Role of Legal Services” and met with students minoring in our Law & Society program.
Our excellent instructors in sociology, criminology, and human services continue to produce important publications and win teaching prizes. RJ Maratea, for example, has a new book, Killing with Prejudice: Institutionalized Racism in American Capital Punishment (NYU Press, 2019). Daina Eglitis published the fourth edition of her introduction to sociology textbook, Discover Sociology. Antwan Jones received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Thought Leadership Award "in recognition of outstanding accomplishment in outreach and communications." This year, Terrie Gale, who teaches criminal law, will receive the 2019 Morton A. Bender Teaching Award, and Assistant Professor Eiko Strader won the Trachtenberg School's teaching award. Eiko also won a prestigious award from the Council of Graduate School Deans for the top social science dissertation in 2018. Martin Schwartz is receiving an Outstanding Mentors Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and won Teacher of the Year Award from the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice. And Amanda Pierson won the 2019 Phillip J. Amsterdam Graduate Teaching Award. Please feel free to reach out and congratulate our outstanding faculty on their special accomplishments. We hope you will regularly “like” our Facebook postings, visit our website, and send your news to [email protected].
Finally, we are so grateful to the donors who have enabled us to grow the department’s Ruth A. Wallace Memorial Fund. We especially want to thank Professor Howard Frank of Florida International University for his immensely generous bequest to the department and his inspiring talk to our graduates last May. We hope he will inspire more alumni to make their own contributions!
Hilary Silver
Department Chair
Department Spotlights
Xolela Mangcu Joins the Sociology Department
Xolela Mangcu, described by South Africa's Sunday Times as that nation’s “most prolific public intellectual,” joined the Sociology Department faculty this fall.
Before coming to GW, Mangcu was professor of sociology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa’s leading university. He was also the holder of the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship, the most prestigious research award in Africa.
He obtained his BA in sociology and his MSc in development planning from the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was also a leading student activist. He earned his PhD in city and regional planning at Cornell University under the direction of Pierre Clavel. His dissertation was on Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, arguably the greatest influence on the first black president of the United States, Barack Obama.
Mangcu has held distinguished fellowships at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Brookings Institution, The Woodrow Wilson Center and the University of London, where he was the Distinguished Emeka Anyaoku Fellow.
Mangcu is the author and co-author of nine books, including Biko: A Biography, which won the University of Cape Town’s Meritorious Book Award for 2013. He also edited Becoming Worthy Ancestors, a collection of essays by Benedict Anderson, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martin Bernal and others. The book was the first in Africa to be listed in the Thomson Reuters series. He also edited The Meaning of Mandela, a series of essays by Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Wole Soyinka, Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
He is now writing the first African-authored biography of Nelson Mandela. Mangcu was for many years a columnist for The Sunday Independent, Business Day, Weekender, Sowetan, and City Press.
Alumni Spotlight: Juliette E. Lippman, Esq., BA ’90, JD ‘93
Juliette E. Lippman, BA ’90, JD ’93 (Nova Southeastern University School of Law), is a partner with Birnbaum, Lippman & Gregoire, PLLC, a south Florida family law firm. She practices exclusively in the area of family and marital law where she provides highly experienced counsel and representation to high-net-worth individuals. She is the author of several chapters of various editions of Florida Dissolution of Marriage, published by The Florida Bar and most recently The Florida Bar Foundation’s Strategic Reset: Investing in the Future of Access to Justice and the Rule of Law, to be published by Nova Southeastern University School of Law.
Lippman is well known for her community work, having been awarded the Florida Bar Family Law Section Chair’s Special Award of Merit and the Broward County Bar Association’s Joseph J. Carter Professionalism Award. Her law firm was named Law Firm of the Year in 2015 and 2009 by Legal Aid Service of Broward County and Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida.
Since 2016, she has served as the chairperson of the Children’s Diagnostic and Treatment Center which provides medical care to more than 11,000 children in Fort Lauderdale. She was appointed by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the Statewide Council for Florida’s Independent Living Centers in 1999 and by Governor Lawton Chiles to the Children’s Medical Services Assistive Technology Funding Guidelines Work Group in 1996.
She is the president of the Florida Bar Foundation, which accomplishes its mission of providing greater access to justice through strategic grant making and catalytic philanthropy. On April 11, Lippman moderated “Equal Justice: The Indispensable Role of Legal Services,” a panel discussion on the state of civil legal aid with distinguished experts hosted by the foundation and GW Law. The event focused on the critical lack of legal aid funding, how innovation and technology can improve access to legal aid and collaboration and engagement.
Lippman credits her drive to improve access to legal services to her time as a sociology major, where she learned the importance of working towards system change solutions designed to empower society’s most vulnerable citizens.
Department Announcements
FACULTY KUDOS
On Thursday, February 7, Bob Cottroll was co-keynote speaker at the 2019 Annual Randolph W. Thrower Symposium: Exploring Gun Violence in Modern America, Law, Policy and Social Movements. It was held at Emory University School of Law.
Professors Daina Eglitis and Michelle Kelso published “Ghost Heroes: Forgetting and Remembering in National Narratives of the Past” in the journal Acta Sociologicia (2018).
Professor Kelso also received three GW grants to work on Holocaust research projects from the Humanities Facilitating Fund, the Resilience Network, and the Columbian College Facilitating Fund. In spring 2019, she is acting director of the Human Services & Social Justice Program.
Professor Martin Schwartz received the annual Teach of the Year Award of the ASC Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice, which was based on a joint nomination by a large group of former students. He also co authored “Polyvictimization and the Continuum of Sexual Abuse at a College Campus: Does Negative Peer Support Increase the Likelihood of Multiple Victimizations?” for the British Journal of Criminology. Professor Schwartz continues to make an impact in his students lives and for the second year in a row was nominated by the GW Athletics Department and student athletes for the Best Professor Award.
Professor Eiko Strader won the Outstanding Teaching Award in the Trachtenberg School and recently began working as the Secretary for the Early Career Network Special Interest Group for the Work Family Researchers Network.
Professor Steve Tuch is working on a national study of the racial attitudes and intergroup experiences of high school students.
CURRENT STUDENTS
Graduate criminology student Amanda Pierson recently won the 2019 Phillip J. Amsterdam Graduate Teaching Award.
Graduate student Lauren Walker won the District of Columbia Sociological Society Helen Tauber Award for Best Paper by a Student in an MA Program in May 2018.
BA/MA student Lauren Danielowski won a Fulbright to India to study maternal health and mortality.
Three students had papers accepted at the Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting in August 2019 in New York City:
- Undergraduate Kimberly Krane for her paper “The Lion Turns Painter’: Mural Arts Philadelphia Seen through the Lens of Africana Theory”;
- MA student Ryan Riccardi for his paper “Labor Implications for the Objectification of Environmental Consciousness: A Case Study of Single-Use Plastics”;
- BA/MA student Kimberly Tanner for her paper “Over-Disciplining Students with Disabilities” which was accepted for the Round Tables regarding Educational Access.
DEPARTMENT ACHIEVEMENTS
Professor Eiko Strader won the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards in Social Sciences from the Council of Graduate Schools and also won a grant from the Columbian College Facilitating Fund. She was profiled in the CCAS Spotlight newsmagazine.
Professor Daina Eglitis published the newest edition of her introduction to sociology text Discover Sociology, 4th edition (Sage, 2019).
DEPARTMENT EVENTS
Jean Beaman of Purdue University spoke about her book, Citizen Outsider in February at the Elliott School of International Affairs.
The University Seminar on Bottom-up Politics held a forum titled “Bottom-up Politics: What Do We Know and Where Do We Need to Go?” on March 6, 2019 with a panel of speakers including Sociology Department Chair Hilary Silver and Professor Greg Squires. Bottom-up politics respond to the current dysfunction in national governance with its damaging consequences for residents in both urban and rural communities throughout the nation.
On March 28, Mark Rudd presented “From Underground to Cyberspace: the future of student politics” to a packed room of sociology students and faculty.
Andreas Reckwitz, professor of sociology at the European University Viadrnia in Frankfurt/Oder will speak on “Das ende der Illusionen aslkdfjasldfj” on April 23.
On March 26, Professor RJ Maratea presented his new book Killing with Prejudice: Institutionalized Racism in American Capitol Punishment to the Sociology Department faculty and students. The book chronicles the entire McCleskey vs Kemp litigation process, which culminated in what has been called "The Dred Scott decision of our time."
Alumni Updates/Class Notes
Julia Barrett, BA ’18, chose to continue her education at GW where she currently pursues a master's in public policy from The Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration while working for the Women's Leadership Program.
William Belmont, BA ’88, established The Belmont Group, combining his criminal justice degree from GW with his law degree. The Belmont Group is a national investigation firm based in New York. The firm celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.
Matthew Brown, BA ’04, Angela (Lee) Brown, BA/BS ’04, MD ’12, added another chapter to their GW love story when they welcomed their first child in October 2018.
Loretta Charles, BA ’09, is a newly minted attorney who currently works in the General Counsel division of a company that delivers health and human services to state and local governments.
David Deitz, BA ’98, is marking his 17th year as an assistant prosecutor at the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, N.J., where he is the section chief of the narcotics unit. He lives with his wife, Erin, and three daughters in Cherry Hill, N.J.
Joshua Douglas, BA ’02, published a new book, titled Vote for US: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting. The book presents an encouraging assessment of current efforts to make our voting system more accessible, reliable and effective.
Máel Embser-Herbert, Ph.D., J.D., BA ’78, conducted interviews with transgender individuals serving in the United States military. They will be presenting this work at the 2019 annual meetings of both the Eastern Sociological Society and the Midwest Sociological Society.
Johanna Fishbein, BA ’04, is currently living in Singapore, working as the head of university advising at the United World College of South East Asia, Dover Campus. She has enjoyed having many students apply to GW and enjoys hearing about their time at GW.
Jeffrey Gulko, BA ’99, currently is working with Danny Wood, of New Kids On The Block, on the promotion and marketing for the release of his new single with Billboard country artist-to-watch, Jessie Chris.
Benjamin Hess, BS ’18, is working as a consultant at Macedon Technologies in Reston, Va. He stays in touch with the D.C. community through volunteer organizations and singing with the Congressional Chorus.
Sivya Leventhal, BA ’04, is working in college administration in Texas, advising students and helping them make the most of their college experiences. She spends the rest of her time with her husband Keith and their 5-year-old, Elliot, and 1-year-old, Hattie.
Reem Mahmud, BA ’95, is glad to stay in touch. Reem is in the UAE managing a scholarship program and always happy to see international student interest in attending GW.
Greggor Mattson, BA ’97, was quoted in the New York Times about claims that artificial intelligence can identify gay people through facial characteristics. He coauthored a paper on the topic in Sociological Science.
Lucille Sansing, PhD ’83, is a retired university president. She stays busy doing executive searches and consulting for higher education.
Dara Natalie Smith, BA ’08, attended law school in Washington, D.C., and moved to New York City since graduating from GW in 2012. She is presently an associate at Morgan Stanley in the finance division.
Rachel Stein, BA ’07, is an assistant district attorney at the Queens County District Attorney's Office in their economic crimes bureau, where she prosecutes all types of financial crimes in Queens, New York.
Marilyn Stickle, BA ’68, practices psychotherapy in her private practice in Arlington, Va., treating adult individuals and couples. Her book Intuition in Psychotherapy: from Research to Practice will be published by Routledge in 2019.
Ryan Tom, BA ’16, moved to NYC to work as a paralegal for the Federal Defenders of New York after graduation. He is now a MSc candidate in criminal justice policy at The London School of Economics and Political Science. He hopes to pursue a PhD in sociology.
Nonye Ukoh, BA ’14, received her JD and passed the D.C. Bar in 2018 and started as an associate at Cozen O'Connor's Washington, D.C., office where she does transactional law.
Kate (Herman) Zecher, BA ’06, has been working in advertising since graduation. Most recently, she is the VP, senior business director at Velocity, part of Omnicom, managing all digital and social for Aveeno. She recently re-launched Aveeno.com.
Donor Recognition
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
The Department of Sociology would like to gratefully acknowledge the generous donors who made a gift to the department from January 1, 2018 - December 31, 2018.
+ Faculty/Staff | # Parent | ~ Student | * Friend
Lyndsay Nicole Boggess, MA ’03
Jacqueline Miller Byrd, BA ’84
Mckenzie T. Connors, BA ’18
Donald P. Conway, MA ’69
Patricia Evans *
Dr. Howard A. Frank, BA ’79
Andee Jorisch #
Henry Jorisch #
Michael Z. Jorisch, BS ’14, MS ’16
Tracey R. Katz, BA ’18
Peter J. Kearney *
Dr. Liddell Louise Madden ACSW, BA ’69
Greggor Christian Mattson, BA ’97
Stephanie K. Mayer, BA ’11
Christopher R. Percopo, BA ’05
James Dylan Pollitt, BA ’13
Blythe Purdin, BA ’04
Sydney A. Rosen, BA ’18
Roberta A. Sands *
B. Diana Thompson, BA ’82
Lamar A. Thorpe, BA ’07
Angelica A. Vaughn, BA ’18
Portia M.B. Wade, BA ’77
Carolyn J. Winje, BA ’92