JLC Doctoral Program Flashcards
General PhD Overview
The PhD in Justice, Law & Criminology in the School of Public Affairs draws from the breadth and depth of resources across American University. Our program is rooted in contemporary theory, principles, practices, and research methods in criminology, criminal justice, terrorism and homeland security studies, and legal studies. Students come here not only for the academics, but for the chance to work firsthand with experts in our nation’s capital.
Our students organize their programs around two fields of study. Our department offers options in three fields: Justice, Law & Society, and Terrorism & Political Violence. PhD students select one of these as their primary field. Their secondary field may be one of the other two, or they can take courses in Political Methodology or Public Policy from other departments in the School of Public Affairs. Students also have the flexibility to select relevant coursework from other schools at AU, or to take courses in another PhD-granting department at AU or through the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, which includes George Washington University, Georgetown University, George Mason University, University of Maryland, and others.
Connection & Impact
SPA’s PhD in Justice, Law & Criminology puts our students in the middle of one the best places to influence change in crime and policing, terrorism and homeland security, and the criminal justice system. They dive into research that addresses today’s most pressing challenges and produce scholarship with real-world connection and immediate impact.
Each of our doctoral programs reflects values that guide the School of Public Affairs. We encourage engagement and discourse to influence policy makers; formulate critical thinking skills that are crucial to advancing lines of inquiry; cultivate strong leadership skills; prioritize evidence-based reasoning and analytics when addressing societal issues; and challenge the guideposts on equity, fairness, and inclusion to ground students in the institutions of justice and the rule of law. Along the way, we champion truth and self-awareness, as students undertake personal and professional journeys.
Degree Requirements
The PhD degree in Justice, Law & Criminology requires 36 credit hours of coursework.
All students must complete 12 credits of research design and methodology courses, 12 credits in their primary field of study, and 12 credits in their secondary field of study.
[All students in the program take three courses designed to help doctoral students comprehend the nature of science and master tools of research.]
As work on the dissertation project progresses, students register for dissertation credit in order to maintain enrollment. They take Doctoral Continuing Enrollment (JLC-898) and Doctoral Dissertation (JLC-899) after their dissertation proposals are approved.
A minimum grade point average of 3.20 in all coursework is required to remain in good standing and to earn the degree. Full-time status is considered to be nine credit hours per semester.
Students advance to PhD candidacy by successfully completing all required courses, passing the oral qualifier and two written comprehensive exams (one in each of their fields of study), and defending their dissertation proposals. To earn the degree, students must pass a final oral defense of the dissertation.
PhD Student Funding
Unless applicants expect to be funded through a reliable external source, they must request consideration for funding on their application. Upon acceptance into the program, students selected for AU funding are granted a fellowship with full funding for four years of study, contingent on maintaining satisfactory progress each year, with opportunities for further funding available.
As a requirement for the fellowship, students work 20 hours a week with a faculty member. If at all possible, our graduate office will assign students to faculty members with expertise in their areas of research interest.
Students must advance to candidacy by the end of their third year of study to continue receiving funding and to maintain their enrollment.
PhD Students on the Market - Hillary Mellinger, Adjunct Professorial Lecturer
Hillary Mellinger is an instructor in the Department of Justice, Law and Criminology. Her academic interests include comparative asylum / refugee law and policy, the criminalization of migration, and judicial activism in regard to immigration law.
Hillary’s dissertation, titled “Access to Justice at the Asylum Office,” used mixed methods to analyze legal representation and interpretation before the Asylum Office. She has a solo-authored article under review as a part of her dissertation, and is in the process of submitting a book proposal.
In addition, Hillary has a forthcoming, co-authored peer-reviewed journal article that assesses Latino immigrants’ perceptions of law enforcement and how this contributes to existing literature on procedural justice and community policing. She also has a forthcoming, co-authored peer-reviewed journal article that analyzes the results of a laboratory-style experiment on social dominance orientation and procedural justice theory.
Hillary’s previous research compared the U.S. and Australia’s use of offshore detention centers, as well as the influence of Europe’s two supranational courts–the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)–on European states’ migration policies.
Prior to entering the doctoral program, Hillary worked as a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) accredited representative at the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit organization that serves immigrant women and girls fleeing violence.
Her research interests include Immigration / Asylum Law & Policy, Discretion & Legal Outcomes, Policing & Immigration, and Courts.
PhD Students on the Market - Natalie Chwalisz, Adjunct Instructor
Degrees:
MA Conflict & Human Rights; Utrecht University
BA International Relations; Beloit College
Bio
Natalie Chwalisz is a PhD candidate at the School of Public Affairs, in the Justice, Law and Criminology Department. She focuses in on human smuggling, mixed migration and forced displacement.
In her free time, she’s an avid cyclist, nature lover, and practitioner of mindfulness meditation.
Admission to the Program, JLC PhD
Applicants are considered and admitted for the fall semester only. January 1 is the deadline for application for admission. All applicants must submit scores from the verbal and quantitative sections of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). The normal minimum for consideration is a grade point average of 3.20 (on a 4.00 scale) in all previous academic work. Applicants are admitted for full-time study only.
PhD Candidacy
Advancement to candidacy is accomplished by successfully completing an oral qualifying examination at the end of the second semester of study, two written comprehensive examinations in the third year of study, and successfully defending a dissertation prospectus before the end of the third year of study.
Dissertation
Each student selects a specialization in which to complete an original research project under the direction of program faculty and write a dissertation. Students may choose research projects within one of the major areas or select a research specialization from one of the other graduate fields within the school.
Each student prepares a research proposal for the dissertation project. It is the responsibility of the student to secure the agreement of a School of Public Affairs full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member to serve as the chair of the dissertation committee. One of the two other members of the committee may be from outside SPA. As part of this process, each student must publicly defend the research proposal before the dissertation committee and other interested faculty.
The committee and the SPA graduate advisor (acting for the dean) must approve the defense and the research proposal. The topic covered by the proposal must be related to ongoing research or publications of the supervising faculty.
As work on the dissertation project progresses, students register for dissertation credit. Substantive graduate work may be used as part of this requirement where it contributes directly to the research specialization and is specifically recommended by the dissertation committee chair
Upon completion of the research and the written dissertation, the candidate submits the manuscript to the dissertation committee for review. If the committee members approve the manuscript, the candidate must complete an oral defense of the dissertation and the general field in which it lies before the committee and other interested faculty. The committee determines conclusively at this point whether the dissertation and examination are acceptable.
The dissertation must consist of high quality original research directly relevant to the student’s doctoral program. A dissertation proposal may be rejected if the topic does not address a major research issue in justice, law and society, the research design is inadequate, the methodology is inappropriate, or because no full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the School of Public Affairs is academically competent or available to supervise the project. If the candidate fails to maintain satisfactory progress toward completion of the dissertation, his or her candidacy may be terminated.
The department has added a PhD field in Terrorism and Political Violence.
Effective Fall 2023, students have a choice of first field in Justice, Law and Society, or Terrorism and Political Violence. The second field may be one of these options not used for the first field, other offerings from the School of Public Affairs including Political Methodology or Public Policy, or another field approved by the department.
PhD Students
Candace Strickland, PhD Candidate
Law enforcement, intelligence, homeland security
