Hello, and welcome to the Summer 2009 edition of the Member Profiles section of the SARAH newsletter!
In this edition, we introduce you to Amy D’Unger, a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and the fearless editor and webmaster of this newsletter, and Susan Krumholz, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Amy D’Unger has distinguished herself as a sociologist and criminologist by focusing on juvenile delinquency and criminal careers. As you will see, she is currently busy with a number of projects that branch out from her earlier work: from research on involuntary sterilization to an investigation of secondary criminal effects of sex-oriented businesses on crime rates. Amy is a distinguished educator, with a number of awards for her teaching, a self-labeled “nerd,” and a devoted member of a large family of people and (mostly) animals.
Susan Krumholz began her career as an attorney, and has focused her academic work since then on dating violence and on gender and the legal profession. In 2006, she introduced UMass Dartmouth to the revolutionary Inside Out Prison Exchange Program, which brings together students from Universities and students in prison to attend academic classes together in prisons. In addition to her active involvement in the DWC, she is also an officer in the Justice Studies Association, and look out West Coaster DWCers – Susan and her family are soon to be taking over California on vacation, leaving her cats to watch Paula Deen all by themselves!
We choose people to profile using a random number generator (really!), but if you have suggestions for DWC members or significant contributors to the field of women and crime that you would like to see profiled, please contact Venezia Michalsen at michalsenv@mail.montclair.edu or Alana Van Gundy-Yoder at yoderal@muohio.edu. We would enjoy hearing from you!
Until next edition,
Venezia and Alana
AMY D’UNGER
How did you become interested in the field of women and/or gender and crime?
I’d love to say that I became interested in the field because of a long-held fascination with the topic, and that I made a rational decision about where to go to college and graduate school. But I didn’t. I entered college intending to be an English major (in fact I did double major in sociology and English), but became interested in sociology through my advisor. I was randomly assigned a first year advisor who also happened to be a criminologist and the chair of the sociology department at the College of William and Mary (David Aday). Because of his enthusiasm for the sociological study of crime, I took a few criminology classes and fell in love with the subject. I expanded my sociological interest into race, class, and gender inequality, and the two just seemed to work well together. Gender and crime weren’t a focus in the sociology department at Duke, where I received my Ph.D., but Duke has an amazing Women’s Studies Department—the first in the United States—so I was able to augment my study of crime with the study of gender through WS.
How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?
I would probably move “educator” to the front of that list, because teaching is where my passion truly lies. After going at a frantic pace for so long and finishing my Ph.D. at 27, I was quite burned out when I started my first academic position as an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Emory University. I was also quite burned out of being the hard-core statistician, as I view statistics, like any methodology, as a means to an end rather than as the end itself (at least for me). My research productivity dropped off, but my teaching flourished. My career on the tenure track, therefore, did not last long. I am now in a non-tenure track position at Georgia Tech, where I find my research has actually increased and I continue to love teaching. I have a light teaching load, advise all of our majors and minors (it’s an interdisciplinary program in sociology and history), and recruit students. At a school like Georgia Tech, you actually have to RECRUIT students to study the social sciences. Go figure. I have also always been an active volunteer with a wide variety of programs. I was the co-founder and president of a non-profit animal rescue and welfare organization in Atlanta, and now serve as chair of the board of directors of Compassionate Kids, Inc. (www.compassionatekids.com , feel free to donate large sums of money to us). While it is not directly tied to advocating for women and others in the criminal justice system, the aim of the group is to teach children to have compassion for the earth, people, and animals, so I think that covers just about every progressive cause you can imagine!
What are your current projects or interests?
I currently have 2 ½ projects going. The ½ project is those few lingering things from my dissertation that I think could be pretty interesting papers, if I ever had a few spare minutes to pursue them. Anyone want to write about neighborhoods, gender, and juvenile offending with me? I’ve done lots of analyses! My second and main area of interest is the effect of social policy on reinforcing inequality, broadly speaking. After reading a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the state legislature passing a resolution to apologize for Georgia’s program of forced involuntary sterilization, I became really interested in the topic and scope of the problem, particularly with regards to race and gender, and particularly in the South. Through some small grants I was able to obtain the complete medical records of every patient sterilized in Georgia during the involuntary sterilization policy from 1937 – 1965. It’s somewhere around 35,000 pages of documentation, of which I’ve barely begun to skim the surface. I am particularly interested in the changing demographics of the population being sterilized as the South moved through the turbulence of the civil rights movement. My third project grew out of consulting work and is particularly interesting to me as a feminist. I am looking at the secondary criminal effects of sex-oriented businesses on crime rates. It’s an interesting tension between feminism and first amendment issues. I’m working with some colleagues at Georgia State, which has a great sociology program, so it’s been really fun to collaborate again.
Who is your favorite person (or animal!) to spend time with, and what are your favorite things to do when you are with them?
That could be a long answer, since I live in a zoo. I currently have three dogs (great dane Harvey, cattle dog/pit bull mix Summer, and spaniel mix Juneau), five indoor cats (Missy, Jamie, Bleu Cheese, Cleo, & Izzie), one outdoor feral cat who lives on our porch (Sprinkles—he’s neutered, of course!), and a Senegal parrot (Fry Bread). In addition, I have a wonderful spouse who is also an academic (Bill Winders), and a three year old son (Samuel D’Unger). At the moment, the three year old is still in the throes of the “terrible twos,” so he’s not exactly the most relaxing person to spend time with. But we love to go to the Atlanta Children’s Museum, the pool, and pretty much anywhere else that will tolerate a loud and spastic child (there are few of those venues around, so I take what I can get).
How do you wind down after a stressful day?
I love to read, read, and read some more. I also enjoy eating my husband’s cooking, as it means that a) I didn’t have to cook, and b) dinner will be edible BECAUSE I didn’t cook. We’re hooked on a few HBO series, and I’ve recently gotten into both blogging and learning a little bit about website and graphic design. Yes, I am a nerd. I created a blog for my department (www.georgiatechhts.blogspot.com ) as well as one for myself (www.profmomma.blogspot.com ). Learning a little bit about coding and design is very satisfying, as it’s quite finite and concrete. Something doesn’t work on your webpage? Well, you can solve the problem, fix the code, and VOILA, it works! Very immediately satisfying, as well as tapping into some creative energy. Let me reiterate that I am a nerd.
What obstacles do you feel you have overcome to be where you are today?
I have gotten to reap the benefits of all the women in academia who have come before me and paved the way through this profession. I’ve also figured out what I’m interested in studying and how to balance that with teaching and the other aspects of my job. Next step: to balance all that with the rest of my life and try to remain sane.
What would you like to be remembered for?
I don’t necessarily want to be remembered for who I am professionally, unless it is through teaching students to be critical of the world around them and challenge some of their long-held assumptions and worldviews. So, I guess what I want to be remembered for is who I constantly strive to be: a person who was compassionate towards people and animals and who tried to tread lightly on the planet. Hopefully, part of that legacy will be through my son… and maybe through another child. You never know…
What is one of your lifelong goals?
Learn how to play the bass, re-learn how to ride a motorcycle, write a book that people will actually want to read, and to raise a kind, vegetarian, feminist son. That’s four goals. Oh well.
For more information on Amy D’Unger, please visit:
www.hts.gatech.edu/faculty/dunger-amy.php
www.profmomma.blogspot.com
SUSAN KRUMHOLZ
How did you become interested in the field of women and/or gender and crime?
I first identified as a feminist in the early 1970's, so I guess I have always been interested in issues affecting women. And I became interested in the subject of violence against women as a law student. I came to criminology late, but feminist criminology was a natural.
How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?
I am an activist and educator. I've never thought of myself as much of a scholar. I have a sister who is an English professor and she has always been the scholar in the family. I do what I need to do to survive in academia. But my heart is in activism, and I guess I don't distinguish my teaching from my activism (creating little activists?!).
What are your current projects or interests?
I am involved with the Inside-Out Prison Exchange program, and that is very important to me. I have two ongoing research projects that I hope amount to something. I'm interviewing women who've attended law school about their reactions and coping strategies for working in an adversarial system. And I'm researching a program that has developed a continuous curriculum for 5th to 10th graders, to educate about relational violence.
Who is your favorite person (or animal!) to spend time with, and what are your favorite things to do when you are with them?
Can I pick two? My sister and her now 14 year old daughter. Just about anything we do together is fun, but playing May I (an family card game) is the best. The three of us are taking a trip to California in August and I'm psyched.
How do you wind down after a stressful day?
This is embarrassing. I sit with my cats, put up my feet, and watch junky television! Current favorites are HGTV and the Food Network (but it gets a lot worse than that, believe me.)
What obstacles do you feel you have overcome to be where you are today?
I honestly think I was very privileged; most of the obstacles were internal rather than external. However, I do have some pretty amusing stories about being a woman practicing law 30 years ago.
What would you like to be remembered for?
Compassion and generosity.
What is one of your lifelong goals?
To become a competent sailor.
For more information on Susan Krumholz, please visit:
http://www.umassd.edu/cas/sociology/faculty/skrumholz.cfm