Joachim J. Savelsberg

Professor
Dr. rer. pol. 1982 University of Trier, FRG
Room 1181 Social Sciences
tel.: 612-624-0273
email: savel001@umn.edu

Interest Areas

Sociology of Law; Criminology; Sociological Theory; Sociology of Knowledge; Comparative.

Current Research

(1) Collective memory (CM) and law: a) consequences of CM for use of law or force by collective actors/states, b) shaping CM of atrocities through courts of law and alternatives; (2) Cross-national/ historical variation of criminal punishment (role of institutions: knowledge production and decision-making [state, law, science, religion]).

Recent Publications

“Law and Collective Memory,” with Ryan D. King. 2007. Annual Review of Law and Social Sciences, 3: 9.1-9.23 (web version; print version forthcoming, December 2007).

“Human Rights Violations, Law, and Collective Memory: Toward a Research Agenda” (in Portuguese). Forthcoming 2007. Tempo Social: Revista de Sociologia da USP, 19.

“Does Blau and Moncada’s Human Rights Law Fit World Society?” (comment on Judith Blau/Alberto Moncada and John Hagan/Ron Levi). Forthcoming 2007. Sociological Forum, 22(4)

“Between Worlds: Marginalities, Comparisons, Sociology.” 2007. Pp. 49-64 in Sociologists in a Global Age: Biographical Perspectives, Mathieu Deflem, ed. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Overcoming Narrow, Distorted and Unconscious Adoption of Theory in Criminology. 2006. Editor of special issue of Crime, Law, and Social Change, 46(1-2).

“Underused Potentials for Criminology: Applying the Sociology of Knowledge to Terrorism.” 2006. Crime, Law, and Social Change, 46(1-2): 35-50.

Criminal Courts, co-edited with Jo Dixon and Aaron Kupchik. 2006. Aldershot: Ashgate

“Social Problems in Germany and in the United States: Comparative Commentary on Best and Steinert--and Suggestions” (in German). 2006. Soziale Probleme, 17(1): 45-53.

“Sociological Theory in the Study of Sentencing: Lighthouse for a Traveler between Continents.” 2006. Pp. 185-204 in Sociological Theory and Criminological Research: Views from Europe and the United States, Mathieu Deflem, ed. New York: Elsevier Science.

“Global Processes, National Institutions, Local Bricolage: Shaping Law in an Era of Globalization,” with Marion Fourcade. 2006. Law and Social Inquiry, 31(3): 513-519.

"Institutionalizing Collective Memories of Hate: Law and Law Enforcement in Germany and the United States," with Ryan D. King. 2005. American Journal of Sociology, 111(2): 579-616.

2006 Article Award, Law & Society Association
2007 Article Award, American Sociological Association, Section on Culture

“Criminological Knowledge: Period and Cohort Effects in Scholarship,” with Sarah M. Flood. 2004. Criminology, 42(4): 1009-1041.