Sociology Grad Seminar Discusses ‘Falling Back’ with Author

Dr. Elizabeth Lee’s Sociology of Inequality graduate seminar used Skype to talk with Dr. Jamie J. Fader, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University, during their class on a Wednesday evening in February.

Fader is author of Falling Back: Incarceration and Transitions to Adulthood among Urban Youth, which centers around her research into the juvenile rehabilitation system set in place in the deeply racially segregated city of Philadelphia. The book was published by Rutgers University Press in 2013.

For the first part of class, the Sociology graduate students discussed select chapters of Fader’s 2103 book and then they got her on the screen.

Students asked Fader questions about her book and learned specifics about her research, including methodologies, tensions in the criminal justice system’s rehabilitation services that disproportionately affect young black men, the logistics of her data collection, and the present and future state of Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system.

Student Reactions

“Reading and hearing about a successful research’s methodologies, challenges, and lasting policy effects was invaluable for us, as graduate students who are beginning our own studies presently. Our conversation with Dr. Fader was inspiring and also a little sobering,” says Babz Jewell ’14.

“I really enjoyed Dr. Fader’s insight on building rapport [with informants] by giving the subjects a window into the researcher’s own life,” says Sayre Donley ’16, current Sociology Master’s student.

“I thought speaking directly with the author brought a new dimension to the reading. It was great to be able to probe deeper into our specific areas of interest within the book and hear updates on the current status” of the issues that Dr. Fader covered, graduate student Kerrigan Boyd commented.

Graduate student Brendan Hunstad ’16 added, “I think when you read a researcher’s publishing like this book and then talk to them personally, it brings to light a new perspective about the details and significance to the author’s work.”