WVU Scholar Spotlight

Martin Schwartz grew up in Port Chester, NY, and attended the University at Albany, where he received degrees in Sociology (Bachelors), Political Science (Masters), and Criminal Justice (Masters). He spent five years reporting for The Albany Times-Union and three years teaching at various European military bases for the University of Maryland. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, he took a job at Ohio University in 1985. 

During our interview, he states falling into teaching serendipitously. His neighbor had told him about the new school of Criminal Justice at the University of Albany. Dick Myron, who was the dean, was running for school board in Voorheesville (NY) and Schwartz was covering the election for the newspaper.  While waiting for the votes to be counted the next night, he had a 3-hour interview in a hallway, and later got a fellowship. His interest in feminist research existed since elementary school and only grew with attending grad school and becoming married. He has written on almost every major aspect of violence against women and sexually marginalized groups, plus criminological theory, corrections, policing, research methods, and collective efficacy. Schwartz is currently deep in revisions of the 13th edition of Deviant Behavior and a number of articles and books on violence against women waiting to be completed. He is very proud of his recent article, Masculinities, Sport, and Violence Against Women: The Contribution of Male Peer Support Theory.

Schwartz expressed being heavily inspired by Center Director Walter DeKeseredy for “...whenever he got a new [enthusiasm] I found myself learning a new field (collective efficacy, pornography, left realism, etc.).” His students also deeply inspire him. He considers himself fortunate to have known and co-authored with a number of them and has plans to work with more in the future. He elaborates, “The research and teaching awards that I have won are nice, but the one that was most gratifying was when a dozen of my former students nominated me for the ACJS Mentor Award.” There are things to learn that are easy to pass on so spending time with students is an important part of mentoring. When asked what advice he would give students, Schwartz said, “If it is possible, be a friendly face in the department and get to know one or more faculty members” because a good reputation can help you later.