What's Happening at the Center?

On February 13, 2025, Center Director Dr. Walter S. DeKeseredy gave the prestigious 53 Annual Sorokin Lecture to the University of Saskatchewan community. Titled Foul Play: Patriarchal Male Peer Support and Hockey-Related Violence Against Women, DeKeseredy’s timely presentation drew a very large audience and generated much media attention in the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan.

In November 2023, Dr. DeKeseredy received the Ralph Weisheit Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Criminology’s (ASC) Division on Rural Criminology for his sustained and distinguished scholarship, teaching, and service in the field of rural criminology.

Dr. DeKeseredy also has a new book in production with University of Toronto Press titled Sport and Violence Against Women: Research, Theory, and Policy (co-authored with Dr. Martin Schwartz and Leah Oldham).

Speaking of books, Dr. James Nolan recently published a new co-authored one. Titled Police Abuse and Reform in America, more information about it can be found at https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/police-abuse-and-reform-in-america-9781440881343/.

DeKeseredy and Nolan have also published novel research in leading social scientific journals like the International Journal of Rural Criminology, Journal of Criminology, and Critical Criminology. Further, Drs. DeKeseredy and Kim Dube (University of Moncton) are guest editors of a special issue of the journal Violence Against Women that features articles on various types of violence in sport-related contexts. 

Bringing guest speakers to WVU is also an integral part of the work being done at the Center. Last year, Dr. Andrew Luiz dos Santos Silva, Professor in the Department of Physical Education, Physiotherapy, and Dance at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), gave a presentation showcasing the primary results of research conducted in regions with a high incidence of reported violence against women in southern Brazil. Please keep an eye out for this year’s guests. 

Center staff and their colleagues and their colleagues at other schools (some of whom are pictured above with Dr. DeKeseredy) are always active participants at international conferences like the annual meetings of the Canadian Sociological Association, the ASC, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS).

Lastly, but certainly not least, Center Research Associates made many significant contributions to the study and prevention of various types of violence around the world. More information about the Associates is found at https://violenceresearch.wvu.edu/executive-board/research-associates.