Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, three doctoral candidates from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice successfully defended their dissertations. Following their graduation, all three students have accepted professorship positions at other prestigious universities across the nation.
Ieke de Vries, PhD in Criminology and Justice Policy, 2020
Dissertation
“Crime, Place, and Networks in the Age of the Internet: The Case of Online-Promoted Illicit Massage Businesses”
Research Interests
Responses to human trafficking, contextual causes of crime and deviancy, datamining and database building, computational methods
Recent Awards
Ieke received a National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship (2018-R2-CX-0005) and the 2018-2019 Outstanding Teaching Award.
Future Plans
Ieke will join Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice as an Assistant Professor.
Emma Fridel, PhD in Criminology and Justice Policy, 2020
Dissertation
“A Comparison of the Individual-, County-, and State-level Correlates of Homicide and Mass Murder”
Research Interests
Homicide and suicide, individual and contextual effects on lethal violence, and quantitive methods
Recent Awards
Emma received Northeastern University’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award for Research.
Future Plans
Emma will join Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice as an Assistant Professor.
Stuti Kokkalera, PhD in Criminology and Justice Policy, 2020
Dissertation
“Affording a Meaningful Opportunity for Release: Legal Representation for Juvenile Lifers”
Research Interests
Discretionary release, legal decision-making, juvenile offending, mixed research methods
Recent Awards
Stuti was part of the team that received the Tier 1 Seed Grant “Reentering Lives of Juvenile Lifers.“
Future Plans
Stuti will join Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice as an Assistant Professor.
Congratulations to our 2020 doctoral graduates for their tremendous achievements!
