Department of Sociology Blog

 Life After Death Row: Justice Brandeis Innocence Project Students Talk with Released Inmate Damien Echols, His Wife, His Defense Team Advisor, and the Reporter Who Believed Him

In 1994, at the age of 18, Damien Echols was convicted, along with Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin, of the horrific murders of three young boys in West Memphis, Arkansas.  Echols, considered the “ring leader” of the “West Memphis Three”, was sentenced to death and spent 18 years on Death Row in Arkansas for a crime many believed he did not commit. While on Death Row, Damien married Lorri Davis, a landscape architect from New York who became convinced of his innocence and moved to Arkansas to be nearer to him while she worked on his case.  Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder and director Peter Jackson were all strong, public supporters of Echols’ innocence. In August of 2011, after DNA evidence was found to be inconsistent with all three defendants, Echols, Miskelley, and Baldwin were released from prison, although have not been legally exonerated.  After his release, Echols wrote a memoir, “Life After Death” chronicling his time on Death Row.

Join Brandeis students who investigate wrongful convictions as they lead a discussion with Echols, his wife Lorri Davis, Lonnie Soury, a media expert with a particular expertise in wrongful convictions issues, and Erin Moriarty, a correspondent for CBS’ “48 Hours” who interviewed Echols both on death row and after his release. Video clips from 48 Hours and “West of Memphis,” the documentary produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Amy Berg, will also be screened. Echols’ book will be available for purchase and signing.

Pride of Place: Queer Female Identities and Communities in Four Small U.S. Cities

 Assistant Professor Japonica Brown- Saracino, PhD

 Boston University

February 28^th, 3:30 – 4:50 Pearlman Lounge
Japonica Brown-Saracino is an ethnographer who specializes in urban and community sociology, cultural sociology, and the study of race, ethnicity, and sexuality.  She is currently completing a comparative ethnography of four small U.S. cities with growing or emerging populations of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women.  She received her PhD in 2006 from Northwestern University.

Sponsored by:  The Department of Sociology and The Martin Weiner Distinguished Lecturers Fund

Seeing Society: The Long and Winding Road

 
Professor Douglas Harper, PhD

Duquesne University

March 14^th, 3:30 – 4:50 Pearlman Lounge

Douglas Harper has specialized in visual sociology in six published books, for edited collections, and more than sixty papers, chapters and films.  His current policy interests concern de-industrialization, community change in the “rustbelt” and addiction recovery.  He received his PhD in 1976 from Brandeis University.

Sponsored by:  The Department of Sociology and The Martin Weiner Distinguished Lecturers Fund

HPA Update by Nina Hersher, Co-president of the Harry Potter Alliance: Imagine Better

Last semester alum Andrew Slack ’02, came to speak on campus which lead to the creation of the “The Harry Potter Alliance: Imagine Better,” chapter at Brandeis University! Just instituted in Fall of 2012 , we are looking forward to launching ourselves into effective and fun social justice projects this semester. Last semester the HPA held a book drive for the Children’s Hospital in Boston which was a smashing success.

What we do:
The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) is a 501c3 nonprofit that takes an outside-of-the-box approach to civic engagement by using parallels from the Harry Potter books to educate and mobilize young people across the world toward issues of literacy, equality, and human rights. Our mission is to empower our members to act like the heroes that they love by acting for a better world. By bringing together fans of blockbuster books, TV shows, movies, and YouTube celebrities we are harnessing the power of popular culture toward making our world a better place. Our goal is to make civic engagement exciting by channeling the entertainment-saturated facets of our culture toward mobilization for deep and lasting social change.

INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED?
As we enter the new semester…

-    We will have a table at the winter involvement fair this Sunday the 20th from 1-3pm.
-    This Wednesday the 23rd will be our first meeting and we encourage anyone interested to attend! It will be held at 7:30 in the Peace Room located in Usdan.

Co-presidents Nina Hersher and Sarah Zoloth may be contacted for further information at nhersher@gmail.com or szoloth@brandeis.edu.

Check out our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BrandeisHPA

Andrew Slack ’02, a Brandeis Sociology major, was featured in The Boston Globe for his pioneering work in “fandom” based social justice through the Harry Potter Alliance. While at Brandeis, Slack traveled to Ireland on the Sorensen Fellowship. Brandeis currently has a HPA chapter that just organized a book drive.

The 2013 Marshall Scholarship will be awarded to Elizabeth Stoker ’13.  Under this scholarship, Elizabeth will study theology and Christian ethics at Oxford University following her graduation from Brandeis. The scholarship is highly prestigious and selective, with almost 1,000 applicants and no more than 40 recipients. The Marshall Scholarship shares much in common with the Rhodes Scholarship. The difference is a Marshall Scholar’s liberty to attend any UK university and the ability to attend a different university each year during a Scholar’s tenure. Their Rhodes counterparts are required to study at Oxford University for the duration of their tenure.

Elizabeth joins the distinguished ranks of past Brandeisian Marshall Scholars including social and cultural historian Eileen Yeo (1963), Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law professor Martin Stone (1985), and journalist and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Thomas Friedman (1975) who also received a coveted Marshall Medal as part of the 50^th anniversary of the Marshall Scholarship for his contributions to US/UK relations. Other notable recipients include former Governor of Arizona and Clinton Administration U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Stephen Breyer, renowned economist and journalist James K. Galbraith, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, former Duke University and Wellesley College President Nannerl Keohane, and NBC News Senior Vice-President and former Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker.

The Department of Sociology would like to congratulate Elizabeth on her remarkable undergraduate accomplishments and wish her the best of luck in all of her academic pursuits across the Atlantic.

A mini symposium organized in conjunction with the Rose Art Museum’s exhibition
Dor Guez: 100 Steps to the Mediterranean

Wednesday, October 31, 2012
2:00-4:50 pm
Rose Art Museum, Lee Gallery

This event – inspired by the diverse and complex use of photographic practices by multimedia artist Dor Guez, – will combine two keynote lectures by prominent visiting experts, Andrés Zervigón and Catherine Cissé van den Muijsenbergh. The lectures will be followed by discussions and conversations that will reflect upon photography, its uses and contexts.

2:00
Greetings, Dabney Hailey, Director of Academic Programs, Rose Art Museum.

2:10 – 2:45
“Between History and Memory: Art, Photography and Archives in the Middle East.”
Prof. Andrés Mario Zervigón, Professor of Photography, Rutgers University.

2:45-3:00
Q&A

Coffee Break

3:10-3:45
“Zoom In – Narratives and Photography in Zones of Conflict.”
Catherine Cissé van den Muijsenbergh, Executive Director of the IHJR and expert in international criminal justice and human rights law.

3:45 – 4:00
Q&A

Coffee Break

4:10-4:45
Panel discussion with the lecturers, Dor Guez, Dr. Cynthia Cohen, and Dabney Hailey. Moderated by Prof. Ilan Troen.

Symposium chairs: Gannit Ankori and Dabney Hailey. Cosponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

For more information, contact ethics@brandeis.edu.

Check out Andrew Slack’s presentation of the new Harry Potter Alliance chapter 

Andrew Slack ’02, co-founder and executive director of the Harry Potter Alliance, spoke in Pearlman Lounge last Thursday about the forthcoming Brandeis chapter fo theHPA,
as well as the organization’s goals and initiatives in an event sponsored by the Sociology Department and the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

According to the HPA website, the organization “work[s] for human rights, equality, and a better world” by drawing parallels to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

to see the full article, please visit: http://www.thejustice.org/activist-alumnus-inspires-students-1.2927958#.UIADwY6EzFL