Douglas Murray, Sociology Professor Emeritus, presented a keynote talk this spring at the Changemakers Awards Ceremony at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC. The event was organized by the School of Environmental Science and by CSU SOC alumna Naomi Krogman, Ph.D. (’95), the Dean of the Faculty of the Environment. The theme of the talk was Professor Murray’s recent book, We Can Change the World: Tales from a Generation’s Quest for Peace and Justice (Westview, 2024).

Jessie Harney (Political Science), who will begin teaching for our department this fall in the CCJ concentration, organized CSU’s “Innovation Day” to bring together academics and criminal justice practitioners to discuss ways to partner on evaluating emerging public safety programs. Tara Opsal was a keynote discussant. Arnold Ventures supported the event and interviewed Dr. Harney about improving public safety.

Prabha Unnithan led the Justice Evaluation Journal’s (JEJ) Annual Editorial Board Meeting during the recent Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ (ACJS) Annual Meeting in Denver. M.A. student Cassandra Olivarez is Journal Manager, and 2024 is the first full year that the journal has been housed in our department. In 2024, two of JEJ’s articles about police training and predictive policing have, between them, been downloaded nearly 4,500 times.

James Hale helped organize the Mile High Farmers Summit at CSU Spur this year. The event brought together over 100 community food systems workers and advocates in the Denver area to discuss challenges and opportunities. He co-organized a session with Dan Goldhamer from the Office of Engagement and Extension and the Metropolitan Agriculture Experiment Station focused upon how CSU and CSU Spur can better support community food systems in the region.

Ph.D. student Azmal Hossan presented his paper titled “Quest for ‘Collective Continuance’: Tribal Climate Change Adaptation through Self-Determination in the Northern Great Plains” at the American Sociological Association (ASA) Virtual Mini-Conference themed “Reimagining the Future of Work.” His paper includes preliminary findings from one of the chapters of his dissertation, “Climate and Society: Local and Global Sociological Perspectives.”

Ph.D. student Sneha Kadyan was invited to chair the “Commerce and Business Innovations” session (online) for the International Conference on Sustainability and Economic Integration organized by Manipal University, Jaipur, India. The Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts invited Sneha because of her international affiliation and being active in the network.