The dilemma between maintaining public safety and freedom of expression is on full display in Baltimore, and two West Virginia University professors are well-positioned to discuss the rationale behind both.
James Nolan, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, teaches courses in the area of crime and social control. His research currently focuses on police procedures, crime measurement, hate crimes and homicide. Dr. Nolan is a former police officer, who also worked for the FBI as a unit chief in the Crime Analysis, Research and Development Unit that provided management oversight for the National Hate Crime Data Collection Program.
Students from Dr. Nolan’s policing class are presenting research findings tonight (April 28) at the WVU Mountainlair in the Shenandoah Room from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. They talked with police officers in North Central West Virginia about what it means to “do right” in policing today. “Although the findings may not address the Baltimore situation directly, they are clearly related,” said Nolan.
Dr. Nolan is available by phone at 304.293.8582 or 304.657.0516, or email jim.nolan@mail.wvu.edu. Additional information is also available at WVU’s Research Center on Violence.
Joel Beeson is an associate professor at the WVU Reed College of Media. Beeson’s specialty areas are visual journalism, race and ethnic studies, history, multimedia, new media and documentary studies.
Beeson is currently leading a group of WVU students in Selma, Alabama, who have joined a team from Morgan State University in Baltimore, for social justice reporting project on race relations and Selma’s role in the Civil Rights movement.
Dr. Beeson is available at 304.216.3594 or joel.beeson@mail.wvu.edu.
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ak/04/28/15
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