‘Humanities Perspectives on Crime and Justice’ Workshop

Venue: Humanities Research Institute
Date: Friday 31st May
Convenors: Christopher Bennett (Philosophy) and Katherine Ebury (English)

This workshop followed the highly successful ’New Perspectives on Criminological Questions’ event organised by the Centre for Criminological Research in 2018. The aim of both workshops has been to showcase the wide range of humanities-based work on crime and justice across the University of Sheffield; to bring together researchers from a range of disciplines who work on topics related to crime and justice; and to emphasise the breadth of interest across the University in criminological questions. Members of CCR from all disciplines, as well as other researchers who have an interest in questions of crime and justice were encouraged to attend. At a busy time in the university calendar, the event attracted about 20 people, including some external visitors (e.g. from University of Hull). The quality of discussion was very high, and the list of papers below testifies to the breadth of range of the topics covered, but also to the extent to which there were areas of intersection and overlap that will stimulate future research.

Papers:

Andrew Smith (English), ‘'"The Count is a criminal and of criminal type" (Bram Stoker, Dracula): Gothic criminals and self-murder in the fin de siècle Gothic'

Robbie Morgan (Philosophy). 'When Is an Attack Sexual?'

Ruwani Fernando (Law), ‘Desistance processes in the Parisian context’

Christopher Bennett (Philosophy), ‘Moral Dilemmas of Public Participation in Criminal Justice: the Case of the Samaritans Prison Listener Project’ (co-authored with Philippa Tomczak)

Bob Shoemaker (History), 'Convict tattoos, 1780-1925: A Digital Humanities Perspective'

Cormac Behan (Law), 'Where have all the prisoners gone? Prisoners’ Rights Movements and Penal Reform'

Katherine Ebury (English), ‘Diagnosing Shell Shock and Military Crimes in WWI Fiction and Life-writing’

David Hayes (Law), ’The Power Behind the Thrown: Navigating Between Reform and an Unfinished Abolitionism'

Dina Gusejnova (History), '"Enemy alien": towards the biography of a wartime concept'