DQC Internal Award Winners 2024
Book of the Year Award
Dr. Shelly Clevenger, Dr. Shamika Kelley, and Dr. Katie Katajczak – Queer Victimology: Understanding the Victim Experience
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Dr. Shelly Clevenger is a Professor and Chair of the first Victim Studies Department in the nation at Sam Houston State University. She has authored many peer-reviewed journal publications and books on victimization. Dr. Clevenger had the honor to present her research on cybervictimizations at the United Nations Women in New York City and a U.S. Congressional Briefing in Washington, D.C in support of Kamala Harris’s ENOUGH ACT. Dr. Clevenger is also the recipient of national and university awards for her teaching, activism and research. In her spare time she bakes pies, reads comics and spends time with her blind Pug Ned Flanders.
Dr. Shamika Kelley is the first Black woman Crime Lab Director of the New Orleans Police Department in Louisiana. Her practitioner work is nationally recognized as she received the American Society of Criminology, Division on Women and Crime’s Saltzman Award for Contributions to Practice. Her work appears in well-respected specialty journals including Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Feminist Criminology, Crime & Delinquency, and Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. Dr. Kelley holds a B.S. in biological sciences from Louisiana State University, an M.S. in forensic and investigative genetics from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and a Ph.D. in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University.
Dr. Katie Ratajczak is currently an Assistant Professor in Sam Houston State University’s Victim Studies Department. Dr. Ratajczak’s research centers on interpersonal violence, help-seeking experiences after victimization, the role of service providers and policy, and how place and identity impact victimization experiences.
Book of the Year Award – Honorary Mention
Dr. Kurt Fowler – The Rise of Digital Sex Work
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Dr. Kurt Fowler is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Penn State University. His work focuses on the relationship between technology and culture. His first book, The Rise of Digital Sex Work, explores the role virtual communities play in creating a digital culture to increase worker agency and safety. Described as “highly engaging and richly descriptive,” Kurt’s writing blends pulp prose with scholarly empiricism to present his research in a compelling and captivating way.
Outstanding Scholarly Contribution of the Year Award
Dr. Stefan Volger & Dr. Rocio Rosales – Classification and Coercion: The Gendered Punishment of Transgender Women in Immigration Detention
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Dr. Stefan Vogler is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he researches and teaches in the areas of gender, sexuality, law, and crime. He is the author of Sorting Sexualities: Expertise and the Politics of Legal Classification, and his work has appeared in outlets including Social Problems, Law & Society Review, Gender & Society, and Theoretical Criminology, among others.
Dr. Rocío Rosales is Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Faculty Development at the University of California Irvine. She researches and teaches in the areas of international migration, immigrant detention, race/ethnicity, and qualitative methods. She is the author of Fruteros: Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles (UC Press).
Outstanding Scholarly Contribution of the Year Award – Honorable Mention
Dr. Allyn Walker – Transphobic Discourse and Moral Panic Convergence: A Content Analysis of My Hate Mail
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Community Engagement and Activism Award
Dr. Valerie Jenness
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Dr. Valerie Jenness is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Her research has focused on the prostitutes’ rights movement, hate crime and hate crime law, transgender prisoners, and prison violence and grievances. Her work has been funded by National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, state and local entities, and honored with awards from the American Sociological Association, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Pacific Sociological Association, American Society of Criminology, and Law and Society Association. She has informed public policy and litigation through her research, educational and outreach efforts, expert counsel, and commitment to bringing social science to bear on pressing problems related to inequality and minoritized people.
Teaching Award
Susana Avalos, M.A.S.
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Susana “Susy” Avalos is a doctoral candidate and instructor in the Department of Sociology and
Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University. Suzy researches how trans people navigate safety
in public, private and online spaces, resist victimization, and the role of community support inovercoming trauma. Their work appears in journals such as Crime & Delinquency, Homicide Studies,Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Policing & Society, Critical Criminology, and Gender Issues as well as various edited book chapters. In their classroom, Suzy leads with compassion and takes a student-centered approach, using a variety of pedagogical approaches to increase student engagement, develop critical thinking skills, and encourages public criminology. They are humbled to receive this award and are grateful to their mentors, especially Dr. Vanessa Panfil, who nominated them for this award.
Student Paper Award
Anne Uhlman – Deliberate Indifference: Challenging State-Sanctioned Violence Against Transgender People in Carceral Space
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Anne Uhlman is a doctoral student, research assistant, and graduate teaching instructor in Colorado State University’s Sociology department. In her research, she uses participatory methodologies to explore the relationships between gender, marginalization, and the criminal justice system. She is particularly interested in community-based alternatives to incarceration which rely on care, rather than coercion, to address crime. Anne’s research, as well as her commitment to abolitionist frameworks, has been inspired by her work as a mental health counselor in prisons, jails, and courts. In both her research and counseling work, one of her primary goals is to center the voices of people with lived experience—including people who are justice-involved and their families—in conversations around safety and justice. Anne is focused on working with people, not just policies, to rethink what safety and accountability can look like.
Student Paper Award – Honorable Mention
Emma Jennings-Fitz-Gerald – A Scoping Review of Policing and Coercive Control in LGBTQ+ Intimate Relationships
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Emma Jennings‐Fitz‐Gerald is a second year PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include military sociology, sexual misconduct at work, gender and crime, coercive control, and intimate partner violence. Her dissertation research focuses on veterans’ and service members’ experiences with and understandings of sexual misconduct policies and reporting practices in the Canadian Armed Forces.
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DQC Internal Award Winners 2023
Book of the Year Award
Drs. Aimee Wodda & Vanessa Panfil – Sex Positive Criminology: New Directions in Critical Criminology
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Dr. Aimee Wodda is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Law and Society at Pacific University. Her research focuses on the intersection between institutionalized forms of harm and gender, sexuality, and the law. She is the co-author of Sex-Positive Criminology.
Dr. Vanessa Panfil is an Associate Professor of Sociology & Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University. Her research focuses on topics such as queer criminology, gangs, and juvenile justice. She is also the author of The Gang’s All Queer: The Lives of Gay Gang Members.
Teaching Award
Dr. Kathleen Ratajczak
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Dr. Kathleen Ratajczak is an Assistant Professor at Sam Houston State University in the Victim Studies Department. She received her PhD from the University of Kentucky in Sociology and a master’s degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Ratajczak’s research focuses on sexual and gender-based violence. In both her research and teaching, she centers trauma-informed care and highlights the experiences of vulnerable populations. Dr. Ratajczak serves as her department’s undergraduate program coordinator, teaches academic community engaged courses, and mentors many students in the honors and McNair programs on her campus. She teaches several courses, including victimology, family violence, vulnerable victimization, and the neurobiology of trauma.
Community Engagement and Activism Award
Winner – Dr. Matthew Mitchell
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Dr. Matthew Mitchell is a Lecturer of Crime, Justice and Legal Studies within the Department of Social Inquiry at La Trobe University. His research is situated in the field of queer criminology, focusing on the relationship between LGBTQ people, legal institutions, and gendered and sexual harm.
Honorable Mention – Dr. Hannah Liebreich
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Dr. Hannah Liebreich is an assistant professor of sociology at Coastal Carolina University (CCU). Her teaching, research, and service focus on social justice issues including gender-based violence and LGBTQ+ rights. In terms of Community Engagement and Activism, Hannah is currently working on creating more equitable housing options for LGBTQ+ students at CCU.
Emerging Scholar Award
Winner – Dr. Tara Sutton
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Dr. Sutton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Affiliate Faculty in Gender Studies and African American Studies at Mississippi State University. She is a feminist, queer criminologist whose work addresses sexuality, gender, and race as it relates to violence and crime. Specifically, her research explores the social and family influences of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and child abuse with a focus on LGBTQ+ young adults and Black youth.
Honorable Mention – Dr. Matthew Mitchell
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Dr. Matthew Mitchell is a Lecturer of Crime, Justice and Legal Studies within the Department of Social Inquiry at La Trobe University. His research is situated in the field of queer criminology, focusing on the relationship between LGBTQ people, legal institutions, and gendered and sexual harm.
DQC Student Paper Award
Winner- Lauren Moton
Paper: Intersections of Exclusion: An Exploration of the Lived Experiences of Trans Women of Color (TWOC) Sex Workers in New York City
Paper Blurb:
Using qualitative methodologies, Lauren’s paper explores the lived experience of trans women of color sex workers in New York City. Her innovative study highlights how gender and racial identities interact to inform engagement with sex work, a stigmatized form of labor. Further explored is how these identities compound experiences of discrimination and exclusion for this population.
Lauren N. Moton is an incoming Senior Researcher at New York University’s Marron Institute for Urban Management. Informed by Black feminist and queer criminology, her scholarship broadly examines victimization, marginalized identity, and criminal legal systems. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, ASC’s Division of Feminist Criminology, and The Graduate Center, CUNY. She has authored several peer-reviewed articles and is most recently published in Journal of Criminal Justice. Lauren will receive her PhD in criminal justice in 2023 from John Jay College, CUNY.
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Honorable Mention – Andy Holmes
Paper: Queer Capitulation: Historicizing Homonormativity by Joining Forces with the Police
Paper blurb: Andy’s paper uses historical, archival methodologies to chart the experiences of LGBTQ2+ activists and their engagement with the police in Toronto. Using data gathered from archival documents and newspaper articles between 1981-2005, Andy generates a theoretical concept known as “queer capitulation” which highlights the ethos of homonormative investments in policing and considers how violence can push LGBTQ2+ activists to support the police.
Andy Holmes (he/him pronouns) graduated from the University of British Columbia with a BA (honors) in Sociology with a minor in Critical Studies in Sexuality. He currently is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Andy researches relations between law enforcement and queer communities. His research in this area can be found in the Journal of Homosexuality and the Journal of Canadian Studies. He also researches queer identities within the coming out process, which can be found forthcoming in Theory & Society.
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DQC Outstanding Scholarly Contribution Award
Winners – Jace Valcore, Henry F. Fradella, Xavier Guadalupe-Diaz, Matthew J. Ball, Angela Dwyer, Christina DeJong, Allyn Walker, Aimee Wodda, and Meredith G. F. Worthen
Paper blurb: In this paper, Valcore and colleagues respond to claims that the Equality Act would would place cisgender women at risk of male violence in sex-segregated spaces. Through the use of legal history, empirical research, and conceptual/theoretical arguments, the authors provide a discussion regarding three important areas: 1) a misinterpretation of the Equality Act; 2) a narrow version that embraces a socially and biologically deterministic view of sex and gender; and 3) ignorance and dismissal of established criminological knowledge regarding victimization, offending patterns, and effective measures to enhance safety.
Author bios:
Jace Valcore, Ph.D. is a Senior Data Analyst for the Denver Sheriff Department.
Hank Fradella, Ph.D. is a Professor in the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Arizona State University.
Xavier Guadalupe-Diaz, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology at Framingham State University.
Matthew J. Ball, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology.
Angela Dwyer, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Police Studies and Emergency Management in the Office of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania.
Christina DeJong, Ph.D. is an Emeritus Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.
Allyn Walker, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Aimee Wodda, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Law and Society at Pacific University Oregon.
Meredith G. F. Worthen, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma.
Honorable Mention – Stacie Merken, Danielle Slakoff, Wendy Aujla, & Lauren Moton
Paper: Navigating Biases and Distrust of Systems: American and Canadian Intimate Partner Violence Services Providers’ Experiences with Trans and Immigrant Women Clients
Paper blurb: In this article, Merken and colleagues use constructivist grounded theory approaches to highlight American and Canadian victim advocates’ perceptions of transgender and immigrant women who seek services for intimate partner violence. They show that several barriers exist including service provider biases, shelter conflicts, and distrust of systems.
Author bios:
Stacie Merken, Ph.D. is Department Chair and Assistant Professor of the Department of Criminal Justice and a Senior Mosaic Faculty Fellow at Indiana University South Bend.
Danielle Slakoff, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in the College of Human & Health Services at Sacramento State University.
Wendy Aujla, Ph.D. is the Criminology Advisor and Field Placement Coordinator in the Sociology Department at the University of Alberta.
Lauren Moton, M.S. (ABD) is an incoming Senior Researcher at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management.
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DQC Internal Award Winners 2022
Emerging Scholar Award: Dr. Allyn Walker
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Honorable Mention: Dr. Lindsey Kahle Semprevivo
Community Engagement and Activism: Dr. April Carrillo
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Teaching Award: Dr. Vanessa Panfil
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Student Paper Award: Alessandra Early
Honorable Mention: Susana Avalos
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