Accomplishments of the graduate students in the Department of Criminal Justice. Keep up to date in the News section of our website.
Graduate Student Accolades
Dr. Caitlin Ducate was hooded by Dr. Jon Brauer at the Winter 2022 Commencement ceremony. Her dissertation is titled Masculinity, Femininity, and Crime: How Threats to Gender Explain Crime and Deviance. Dr. Ducate is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University San Antonio.
Hannah Ridner was selected the position of Annual Survey Manager for the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminology and Criminal Justice (ADPCCJ). This position is a two-year appointment.
Sharayah Narlock-Targett received the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) Doctoral Summit Scholarship. Sharayah was one of 40 doctoral students from accredited Ph.D. programs to receive the scholarship. The summit took place at the ACJS Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.
Katie Barrus has received several funding awards to support her dissertation work on police officer comprehension of African American English. She received a Fall Student Funding Research Award from the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminology and Criminal Justice (ADPCCJ). She also received a Grant in Aid of Doctoral Research from the University Graduate School. Katie was also awarded the College of Arts + Sciences Dissertation Completion Fellowship for 2023-23. This 10-month fellowship provides full support as she conducts her research and writes her dissertation.
Tyeisha Fordham attended the Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE) Workshop in Washington, D.C. to learn from science policy and advocacy experts about the role of science in policymaking and the federal policymaking process. Students learn tools for effective science communication and civic engagement and participate in interactive seminars about policymaking and communication.
2023 Graduate Student Awards
- Katie Barrus was awarded the Forensics Studies Hue & Cry Award is in recognition of academic merit, teaching skills, and concern for the welfare to the department and its students.
- Carmen Diaz was awarded the Robert F. Borkenstein Graduate Award is in honor of former Professor Emeritus Borkenstein. Recipients of this award exemplify superior work at the graduate level.
Graduate students presented and attended several conferences over the past year
The Midwestern Criminal Justice Association Annual Meeting (MCJA) was attended by Ph.D. students Amber Richey, Tyeisha Fordham, Emily Brzegowy, Allison Pierce, and Hannah Ridner.
Graduate Student Paper presentations included:
- “Restorative Justice: From Social Movement to Criminological Theory” by Tyeisha Fordham
- “Utilizing Social Network Programs to Visualize Firearm Incident Case Connection” by Allison Pierce
The American Society of Criminology (ASC) was attended by several faculty members and graduate students Katie Barrus, Hannah Ridner, Carmen Diaz, Allison Pierce, and Mitchell Farrell.
Graduate Student Paper presentations included:
- “Detective Reported Challenges in Nonfatal Shoot Cases with Investigative Leads” by Katie Barrus (with Allison Pierce and Natalie Hipple).
- “The Role of Probation Revocation in Future Criminal Justice Involvement: An 8-Year Retrospective Study” by Carmen Diaz (with Evan Lowder, Miriam Northcutt Bohmert, Troy Hatfield, and Michelle Ying).
- “Mapping Network Clusters of NIBIN-Involved Cases to Visualize Firearm Movement” by Allison Pierce (with Katie Barrus and Natalie Hipple).
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