PULLMAN, Wash. – The free, public Legacy of Excellence Reception – including a lecture by 2013 WSU Emeritus Society Legacy of Excellence Award winner James F. Short, Jr. – will be at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in Todd Hall 276.
Short will talk briefly about his recent work. Light refreshments will follow. The event is hosted by the Washington State University Emeritus Society.
WSU Professor Emeritus Short will be presented with the award during WSU’s annual Showcase Celebrating Excellence Recognition Banquet on March 29.
The emeritus award is given for sustained contributions to academia, continued service to the university, community and mankind, and personal accomplishments in retirement that serve as a role model for other retirees.
Short is recognized as a pioneer in the field of juvenile gang behavior beginning in the 1950s; he published a landmark study of Chicago gang violence in 1965. His work on gangs, white collar crime, social control, violence and the sociology of risk and technology has been groundbreaking. He has authored more than 20 books.
Since retirement from WSU in 1997, Short has been an emeritus professor only in the most technical sense, says one of his nominators. He continues to contribute to the sociology department, university and internationally in the disciplines of sociology and criminology. He conducts research, mentors graduate students and publishes on violence, violence avoidance and the social aspects of risk.
He has remained active in projects and organizations in retirement, including: president of the American Society of Criminology; advisory board member for the Social Science Research Council task force on Hurricane Katrina; consultant to the national Crime Victim Survey Committee and member of the Committee on Lethal School Violence and the Committee on Law and Justice – all appointed by the National Academy of Science’s National Research Council; and guest editor of the May 2005 issue of the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.
Short is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a past president of the American Sociological Association and past editor for the American Sociological Review. He received the WSU President’s Award for Lifetime Service in 2006. In 2009, a WSU building was rededicated as Wilson-Short Hall in his honor.
He earned his B.A. from Denison University, Ohio, in 1947 and his M.A. (1949) and Ph.D. (1951) from the University of Chicago. He joined the Washington State College sociology faculty in 1951. He served as dean of the graduate school 1964-1968 and was founding director of WSU’s Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC).
Reservations for the banquet are being accepted at the Showcase website, http://showcase.wsu.edu/, through March 20. In addition to the banquet, WSU Showcase includes the Distinguished Faculty Address (March 28); the Academic Showcase display of faculty, staff and student work (March 29); and SURCA, the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (March 29).