Meeting My Father: A Childhood in Social Justice

• In Event: 35.066 - Narrative Research and Social Justice

Abstract

This family history narrative inquiry study relates the academic and professional career of my father as a new type of educator in the field of Criminal Justice. As a child, I had limited understanding of my father’s many positions of employment and his role as a social justice advocate for improvement in police training and policies. Time and space will factor significantly as my father’s roles in ongoing political and social unrest in the seventies and tragedy in San Francisco in 1978 come to light. Through an interpretive theoretical framework, I work toward linking the relevance of personal artifacts belonging to my father by confirming oral histories collected in the interviews of those who worked with him throughout his life.

Author

• Catherine A. Smyth, University of Northern Colorado