Investigating Ferguson and the Criminological Imagination

• In Event: Roundtable: Critical Teaching: Teaching Critically About Race and Policing

Abstract

Carl Root has taught "Social Forces and Policing Society" at Eastern Kentucky University for seven years with a focus on critical issues including brutality and deadly force. Since the Fall of 2014 there seems to be an increased interest in more sociological explanations of these perennial police problems. This discussion will focus on the way that an examination of the August 9th, 2014 killing of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri and subsequent events provides students with an analytic lens for understanding the intersections of biography and history, structure and agency. Particular readings, written assignments and classroom discussions will be shared.

Author

• Carl Root, Eastern Kentucky University