Join us for the Ladhoff Lecture Series

The Ladhoff Lecture Series is a highly regarded event for students, faculty, staff, and community members interested in explorations of criminal justice issues and disciplines.

In honor of Dr. Gerald Ladhoff, the lecture series features highly respected scholars who are well-recognized experts in criminology and criminal justice. The speakers explore topics that help advance the understanding of contemporary problems of justice, as well as aspects of social life in both the United States and the wider global community.

Since 2012, the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice hosts up to two Ladhoff lectures each academic year in October and February. Events typically include a luncheon with the speaker and event donors, a “meet the researcher” roundtable for students, and a reception after the main lecture where faculty and graduate students can interact informally with the speaker and the donors.

Prior Ladhoff Lecture Series speakers

Previous Ladhoff Lecture guests include:

• Fall 2021: Jennifer M. Chacón, Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley
  View Dr. Chacón’s lecture: “Policing the Borders of Citizenship“
• Spring 2021: David Garland, Arthur T. Vanderbilt Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at New York University
  View Dr. Garland’s lecture: “Roots of Injustice: The Structural Sources of America’s Penal State”
• Spring 2020: José A. Brandariz, Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of A Coruña, Spain.
• Spring 2019: Elliott Currie, Professor of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine.
• Spring 2018: Russell and Rebecca Dobash, Emeritus Professors, Criminology, School of Law, University of Manchester, Manchester, England.
• Spring 2017: Mary Koss, Regents Professor at the University of Arizona; and Mel and Enid Zuckerman, College of Public Health.
• Spring 2016: Ron Kramer, Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University.
• Spring 2015: Valerie Jenness, Acting Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Institutional Research and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, the Department of Sociology, and the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing at the University of California, Irvine.
• Fall 2015: Gray Cavendar, Emeritus Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry, Arizona State University.

Honoring the Ladhoff legacy

Dr. Gerald Ladhoff was a transitional scholar who supported the move from police science as a technical training program to the development of criminology and criminal justice as social science disciplines. This viewpoint is evident in his wish that the speaker series would bring respected scholars in these fields to campus.

Dr. Ray Michalowski, who served as department chair between 1991 and 2001 and is a current member of the Scholarship and Speaker Committee, shared some insights about Dr. Ladhoff’s vision:

“I had the opportunity to speak with Jerry Ladhoff many years ago when I was chair…about the direction the department was taking…toward a version of criminology in which things like social difference and social justice mattered…he was very supportive. He said that the field needed to grow with the times. Presently many scholars of crime and justice have come to recognize that crimes by the powerful are as harmful, if not more so than the street crimes that have historically been the focus of local policing. Having some lectures in Jerry Ladhoff’s name that address these emergent issues is, in my view, very much in keeping with his legacy as a forward-thinking scholar.”

Our goal is to honor this vision and legacy by providing thinkers and experienced practitioners who can speak to the cutting edges of knowledge in the disciplines of criminology and criminal justice.