'Women of the Movement' by Dr Hillary Potter
The Centre for Criminology is pleased to invite you to a talk titled 'Women of the Movement' by Dr Hillary Potter (University of Colorado) from 12:15 pm to 1:30 pm on Friday, 29th September, 2017. The event will be conducted in the Criminology Seminar Room, the Centre for Criminology, St Cross Building OX1UL. The moderator for this event is Professor Mary Bosworth (University of Oxford) and the primary discussant is Professor Akwugo Emejulu (University of Warwick). A sandwich lunch will be available from 12 noon, and you are welcome to stay for coffee after the talk.
Abstract for the Talk: In presentation, Dr Hillary Potter details and provides analysis of her three-years-long ethnographic investigation of the experiences and impact of women involved in social justice and racial justice activism to combat police violence against members of African American community(ies) and related issues facing African Americans. Initially as part of a research collaboration of progressive-race criminologists formed to conduct “boots on the ground” ethnographic research in Ferguson, Missouri USA, in October 2014, Dr Potter embarked on research in a locale with significantly strained relationships between Black residents and local police officials. Ferguson was the site of interest to the research collective due to the need to conduct criminological research centered on the crime-based and activism issues raised in response to the August 9, 2014, shooting death of an18-year-old Black man (Michael Brown) by a White male Ferguson police officer. This case has been identified as the catalyst in a history of poor community-police relations in Ferguson and represents the circumstances and lived experiences of people of Color in many communities across the United States. The acts of community members in and around Ferguson began the current Movement for Black Lives (often referred to as the “Black Lives Matter” movement).
About the Speaker: Hillary Potter is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a BA. and a PhD. in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MA in criminal justice from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (a senior college of the City University of New York). Dr Potter’s research focuses on the critical analysis of the intersections of race, gender, and class as they relate to crime and violence. She is currently researching antiviolence activism in Black and Latinx communities, with field research in Ferguson, Missouri, and Denver, Colorado; intimate partner abuse against women of Color; and men’s use of violence. Dr Potter is the author of Intersectionality and Criminology: Disrupting and Revolutionizing Studies of Crime (Routledge Press, 2015) and Battle Cries: Black Women and Intimate Partner Abuse (New York University Press, 2008), and the editor of Racing the Storm: Racial Implications and Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina (Lexington Books, 2007).
About the Discussant: Before entering academia, Professor Akwugo Emejulu worked in a variety of grassroots roles—as a community organiser, a trade union organiser and a participatory action researcher—in both the United States and in Britain. She joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick in February 2017 as Professor of Sociology. Her current research project, "The Politics of Catastrophe" examines how women of colour activists in Britain, the Netherlands and the United States operationalise an idea of ‘catastrophe’ as a political resource and protest frame for their organising, mobilising and solidarity work.
About the Moderator: Mary Bosworth is the Director of the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford. In addition to being Professor of Criminology, she is a Fellow of St Cross College at the University of Oxford and, concurrently, Professor of Criminology at Monash University, she is also Director of Border Criminologies, an interdisciplinary research group focusing on the intersections between criminal justice and border control. Professor Bosworth is currently heading a five-year project on “Subjectivity, Identity and Penal Power: Incarceration in a Global Age” funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council as well as a Leverhulme International Network on External Border Control.