Hello, and welcome to the Summer 2011 edition of the Member Profiles section of the SARAH newsletter!
In this edition, we introduce you to Kylie Parrotta, a doctoral candidate in sociology at North Carolina State University, and Dr. Lisa Pasko, an Assistant Professor of Sociolegal Studies at the University of Denver.
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 at yoderal@muohio.edu . We would enjoy hearing from you!
Until next edition,
Alana and Venezia
KYLIE PARROTTA
DOCTORAL CANDIDATE
SOCIOLOGY
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
How did you become interested in the field of women and/or gender and crime?
During high school, my mother got me hooked on Patricia Cornwell novels. It was her books that first got me interested in the field. I was inspired to join the Dorothea Dix Explorer Post Program, where I volunteered at the mental hospital and was able to shadow professionals on the forensic psych ward. Being able to sit in on different meetings about men on the ward facing criminal charges was fascinating to me. At the time, I didn’t have a feminist lens to my analysis, but I decided to major in psychology as a result of these opportunities. Spencer Hope Davis kindled my flame for sociology, influencing me to pick up a criminology minor and to go to graduate school in sociology. The way that she taught her Social Deviance course and Social Problems course changed me as a student and eventually influenced my own pedagogical practices. However, my first in depth exposure to the field did not come until graduate school when I took Stacy De Coster’s gender and crime course.
How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?
My scholarship, activism, and teaching are all centered on feminism. To me, this means researching the reproduction of inequality and privilege, participating in events/organizations that challenge the reproduction of inequality and privilege, and teaching (and hopefully inspiring students to reflect and change how they participate in) the reproduction of inequality and privilege.
What are your current projects or interests?
I’m broadly interested in inequality, social psychology, and criminology. For my dissertation, I am completing an ethnography of a women’s flat track roller derby league. My analysis explores identity work strategies that women use to craft derby as a sport and themselves as athletes; how they negotiate organizational conflict by establishing and enforcing policies on volunteering and sportswomanship; and how women, especially mothers, balance work, family, and leisure time. I am also interested in gender, race, and class disparities under sentencing guidelines. I’m currently co-authoring a paper examining the mediating effects of attorney type on charge reductions. I’m also co-authoring a paper on how defendants and their attorneys rely on gendered and racialized accounts as a form of impression management to counter alleged violations of the law.
Who is your favorite person (or animal!) to spend time with, and what are your favorite things to do when you are with them?
These days, my favorite (and sometimes least favorite) thing to hang out with is my dissertation.
How do you wind down after a stressful day?
I like to go to cycling classes to burn off my stress. Then, I like to come home and listen to music while preparing dinner. Then, I like to bond with my couch and some Netflix (most recently, I’ve been geeking out to Battlestar Gallactica).
What would you like to be remembered for?
I would like to be remembered for challenging people, especially my students, to live in the world differently.
What is one of your lifelong goals?
One of my goals is to become fluent in Italian.
Is there a website where we can send people for more information about you?
http://kylielparrotta.wordpress.com/
LISA PASKO, Ph.D.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
SOCIOLEGAL STUDIES PROGRAM
UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
How did you become interested in the field of women and/or gender and crime?
Meda Chesney-Lind was my major professor in graduate school and truly inspired me to become an activist for/scholar of female offenders. I specifically became interested in understanding the gendered nature of juvenile justice involvement when the head judge of Honolulu’s first district court, Frances Wong, approached me during my third year of graduate school and asked me to do a project that examined how girls were being treated (and ignored as well as mistreated) in Hawaii’s youth detention and correctional institutions. From that point forward, I made such inquiry my dissertation project and have continued to dedicate my research and advocacy efforts toward bettering justice for girls.
How do you define yourself as a scholar/activist/educator?
As a public sociologist, I find it imperative to give presentations and create environments where practitioners can critically explore the policies and practices they enforce when working with girls. I also find it necessary to bring girl offenders’ voices to the table. Accordingly, with the Colorado Coalition for Girls, I have organized annual all-day conferences that bring together everyone–judges, probation officers, correctional staff, other direct service providers, and girl offenders–to discuss a wide variety of issues facing girls, from victimization experiences to gender-sensitive programming to direct files to the adult system. The conferences have been fairly successful (about 200 in attendance) and have helped to keep girls’ issues, problems, and challenges visible and important. I also encourage my students to attend, in order to leave the classroom and to meet the people we discuss during our coursework.
What are your current projects or interests?
Currently I am researching sexual minority girls in the juvenile justice system–both from the girls’ perspectives on sexual activity and identity as well as correctional policies (particularly the Prison Rape Elimination Act) that affect these girls behind bars. I am also evaluating a gender-specific intervention program for girl offenders, called InterCept. The process evaluation has shown some positive results (so far).
Who is your favorite person (or animal!) to spend time with, and what are your favorite things to do when you are with them?
My husband, JD, and our pups, Laika and Sunny, offer me a lot of happiness–going for walks, watching old movies, playing in hot springs, etc.
How do you wind down after a stressful day?
I wish the truth were that I go for a long run. The reality is a nice glass of red wine and the Daily Show/Colbert Report.
What obstacles do you feel you have overcome to be where you are today?
I grew up fairly poor, and my family experienced several significant violent events when I was younger. That reality not only makes me appreciate the higher education I struggled through adversity to achieve, but I think it makes me a compassionate educator and researcher. I can identify well with others who haven’t always had an easy life.
What would you like to be remembered for?
First, I would like to be remembered as a good educator–to know that I have inspired students along the way. Second, I hope I made some difference/impact in girl offenders’ lives.
What is one of your lifelong goals?
To sole-author a book that brings together girl offenders’ voices as well as those advocating/creating change.
Is there a website where we can send people for more information about you?
http://www.du.edu/ahss/programs/sociolegal/faculty/pasko-lisa.html
Click here for a recent publication in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by Lisa Pasko.