James Wo is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Iowa and a senior research fellow at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center. His research interests include neighborhoods and crime, spatial inequalities, local institutions and organizations, land uses, and quantitative research methods. He received his PhD in Criminology, Law, and Society from UC Irvine.

This week we speak with Colby Valentine about what it's like to be a Professor of Instruction at a major university.

Colby Valentine is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida. Dr. Valentine received her B.A. in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminal Justice from the University of Pacific (2005), her M.S. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from San Diego State University (2007) and her Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Florida State University (2012). Her research focuses on correctional-based research (i.e., prison misconduct, jail visitation, solitary confinement), victimization (i.e., sex and labor trafficking, intimate partner violence) and criminology and criminal justice pedagogy. She teaches on various topics such as research methods, criminological theory, corrections, and victimization.

This week we spoke with Professor Tom Tyler. We reflected on his career and how he became interested in criminology. We also discuss his major contributions to the field: his work on police legitimacy and procedural justice. Finally, Tom gives us his thoughts on the field and advice for the future.

Tom Tyler is the Macklin Fleming Professor Emeritus of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School, as well as a Founding Director of The Justice Collaboratory. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Stockholm Prize in Criminology for his research on legitimacy and procedural justice. He holds a PhD in social psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

This week, we talked to Tim Barnum about his work on people's perceptions of risk and deterrence from crime.

Timothy Barnum is currently an assistant professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University. Prior to Sam Houston, Dr. Barnum was a Senior Researcher at Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law. He received his PhD from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2018. His recent works explore the individual and situational factors that shape criminal decisions, perceptions, and attitudes.

This week we spoke with Laura DeMarco about cumulative disadvantage and contact with the criminal justice system.

Laura DeMarco is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. Her research asks questions about how the criminal justice system reflects, reproduces, and creates various inequalities, with attention to how the legal and economic context shape the stigma of a criminal record. Laura received her PhD from the Ohio State University in 2020. Before that she obtained a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University at Albany – State University of New York, and a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Sociology from SUNY Geneseo.

We talk to Professor Megan Denver about her work on labeling, stigma, and person-first language.

Megan Denver is an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice and the Director of the Corrections and Reentry Lab at Northeastern University. Megan’s research interests include criminal record stigma, employment and recidivism, credentialing decisions for people with criminal records, and desistance. To investigate questions related to these interests, she uses a variety of methods and integrates criminological theory with policy. Megan holds a PhD in Criminal Justice from the University of Albany and a masters in Sociology from the University of Delaware.

Welcome to our new series: Early Career...like our grad life series, we will document our movement across this phase of our careers. Hopefully this will help other junior faculty as they set off in their careers as well. We kick it off by discussing the transition from student to TT faculty with podcast all-star Ashley Appleby.

Dr. Ashley Appleby is an assistant professor of criminal justice in the school of social sciences, communication, and humanities at Endicott College. She received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University, Newark - School of Criminal Justice, and her B.A. in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Quinnipiac University. Ashley’s research broadly considers the intersection between contact with the criminal legal system and experience of education. She is a student alumnus and trained instructor with the International Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and has previously worked with the NJ-Step and Petey Greene programs. Dr. Appleby is a first-generation college graduate, and she has extensive teaching and pedagogical training in the field.