SPSSI Capitol Hill Briefing on Hate Crime

Biographical Summaries of Presenters

Edward Dunbar is Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA and is also a practicing psychologist in metropolitan Los Angeles. His clinical work addresses the issues of the treatment of workplace harassment, crime victimization, psychological trauma, and violence risk assessment. Dr. Dunbar currently consults with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center in the areas of hate crime offender evaluation and violence prevention in the schools. His publications range in scope from clinical evaluation of racism and victimology to intergroup relations. He is presently involved in the analysis of hate crime activity with the Los Angeles Police Department and is coordinating a multi-country study of attitudes concerning human rights laws.

Brian Levin, criminologist and civil rights attorney, is a professor of criminal justice and director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Mr. Levin specializes in the analysis of hate crime, terrorism, and legal issues. He is also a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the Unites States and California. Professor Levin is the author or co-author of several books, scholarly articles, training manuals, and studies on extremism and hate crime. His book, The Limits of Dissent, is about the constitution and domestic terrorism. Mr. Levin is also a court certified expert on extremism in the United States and England.

Michael Lieberman has been the Washington Counsel for the Anti-Defamation League since 1989 and was recently named Director of the League's Civil Rights Policy Planning Center. Mr. Lieberman has been the point person for ADL on federal and state legislative responses to hate violence. He has served on advisory boards for hate crime education and outreach initiatives sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice.

Shari E. Miles is executive director of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. She received her Ph.D. from Howard University in Personality Psychology in 1997. Her dissertation research focused on racial and feminist identity development in African American women. She has also served as director of the African American Women's Institute at Howard University and the Women's Research & Education Institute. Currently, she is co-editing a special issue of The Journal of Negro Education, which focuses on Black women in higher education, and also writing a chapter about the future of Black Women's Studies.

Laura Beth Nielsen is a Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago as well as an adjunct professor of law and sociology at Northwestern University. She received her Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999 and her J.D. from the same institution's Boalt Hall School of Law in 1996 where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Women's Law Journal. Findings from her research about racist and sexist hate speech have been published in the Journal of Social Issues and the Law & Society Review. This research was awarded the Law and Society Association's dissertation and article prizes in 2000 and 2002. Her current research concerns hate speech directed toward Arab-Americans post-September 11.

Phyllis Peres has been teaching at the University of Maryland in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures since 1990. Additionally, she is a core member of the Comparative Literature Program. Her research focuses on trans-Atlantic relations in the Portuguese-speaking world, the emergence of African national literatures in various countries, and Portuguese colonial and post-colonial cultures. At the University of Maryland, Dr. Peres teaches courses on literatures and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world. Dr. Peres serves on the board of the Individual Studies Program, has been the program advisor for the certificate program in Latin American studies, and acting director of the campus-wide Committee on Africa and Africa in the Americas.

Carolyn Turpin-Petrosino is associate professor of criminal justice at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. She has conducted research and has published articles in several areas including the practices and policies of parole decision-making, evaluation research of community policing programs, sex offender registry laws, racial minorities in law enforcement and hate crimes. Most recently she has co-edited and authored an article to the Summer 2002 issue of the Journal of Social Issues, entitled "Understanding the Harm of Hate Crimes." Dr. Petrosino is currently developing a proposal for a comprehensive undergraduate textbook on hate crimes.