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UW Tacoma faculty are doing research on a variety of important and engaging questions of law and the legal system. Faculty are available for public speaking and community education. Choose a theme to see the details of our faculty's research work.
Chris Beasley
Dr. Beasley is a community psychologist and activist who conducts community-engaged applied research on the social and psychological factors that facilitate and hinder transitions from prison to college.
Dr. Beasley is the founder of the Post-Prison Education Research Lab (PERL)
Other links for Dr. Beasley:
- UW Tacoma news article Chris Beasley Builds a Pipeline
Janelle Hawes
Dr. Hawes is a sociologist whose research focuses on students, education and the criminal justice system, specifically latino and Native American students.
Other links for Dr. Hawes:
Eric Madfis
Dr. Madfis is a nationally-recognized expert on school violence. His research focuses on the causes and prevention of school violence, hate crime, and mass murder
Other links for Dr. Madfis:
- UW Tacoma news article Looking for Answers
- Video Response to Campus Shootings
- Video UW Tacoma Criminal Justice
Stephen Ross
Dr. Ross is a psychologist engaged in applied social cognition research, and is interested in understanding how the social and cognitive processes associated with memory and decision-making influence actions within the criminal legal system.
Dr. Ross founded and directs the UWT Center for Applied Social Cognition Research
Other links for Dr. Ross:
- Video Wrongful Convictions Forum
- U.S. Law and public policy
- International law and institutions
Chris Demaske
Dr. Demaske’s research focuses on First Amendment law, feminist studies, and free press theory.
Dr. Demaske also runs the UWT-MSU journalism exchange program.
Other links for Dr. Demaske:
Danica Miller
Dr. Miller’s research analyzes how various works by Native American writers—including Mourning Dove, D’arcy McNickle, Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko and Sherman Alexie—engage the ways in which federal laws attempt to limit Native American tribal sovereignty. She is also currently writing a book about Puyallup Tribal sovereignty.
Other links for Dr. Miller:
- UW Tacoma feature We Are First Generation
- UW Tacoma news article 2018 Distinguished Teaching, Research, Community Engagement and Service Awards
- UW Tacoma news article Preserving Indigenous Language: Danica Miller and the Lushootseed Language Institute
Randy Nichols
Dr. Nichols’s research focuses on entertainment policy, specifically within the video game industry
Other links for Dr. Nichols:
Anne Taufen Wessells
Dr. Taufen Wessell’s research focuses on planning for sustainable urban development, with two main areas of policy interest: narrative constructions of urban spatial policy, and public access to urban waterways
Other links for Dr. Taufen Wessells:
- UW Tacoma Urban Studies article Anne Wessells faculty co-director for 2017-18 Livable City Year
- Video UW Livable City Year - Connecting Students, Faculty, & Local Jurisdictions
- Video Beyond Urban Branding: The Promise. The Problem. The Potential.
Anaid Yerena
Dr. Yerena’s current and future research interests fall within the domain of affordable housing policy in the U.S. and Latin America, specifically the development of housing policies and locational choice of housing
Other links for Dr. Yerena:
- Profile in Research: Anaid Yerena
- Video Low-Income Housing and Green Building
- Video Anaid Yerena Urban Field Experience
- Video Shaping student perceptions of homelessness: The role of a publicly engaged course
Margaret Griesse
Dr. Griesse's main areas of research include social movements in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil; transversal and transnational studies on gender; and social responsibility within emerging nations.
Cynthia Howson
Dr. Howson is a development political economist, whose research focuses on the role of regulation in people's competition for resources in poor and emerging economies.
Other links for Dr. Howson:
- The World Affairs Council Tacoma presentation Travel Talk: “It’s nice to be nice!”
Ben Meiches
Dr. Meiches' research focuses on global politics. He is particularly interested in armed conflict, genocide, and the development of international law.
Amos Nascimento
Dr. Nascimento is a philosopher specializing in Critical Theory, Discourse Theory and Discourse Ethics (focusing on the works of Juergen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel). His work applies to Human Rights and Cosmopolitanism, German Philosophy (Kant, Habermas), Latin American Philosophy (Dussel), Applied Ethics and Environmental Philosophy.
