Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Congrats to Alex Vitale for Fulbright to Continue Studying Policing

BC Professor Wins Prestigious Fulbright Award

4/7/2009

Alex Vitale

Brooklyn College sociology Professor Alex Vitale won a Fulbright Scholarship to study policing in South Korea. He will spend about five months there next spring conducting his research and lecturing at a university that is still to be determined.

"It’s a big deal to get a Fulbright so I was pretty happy when I first heard. I’ve already started watching some Korean movies and reading as much as I can about the history and culture," he says.

Vitale has studied policing for some two decades, first at the San Francisco Coalition of the Homelessness, where he worked on litigation, monitored police practices and assisted the police with training protocols for dealing with the homeless. He then came to New York to complete a Ph.D. in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. He has taught at the College since 1999.

The author of several books that examine New York City’s policing practices, including 2008’s City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics, Vitale says he has long been interested in introducing some international comparisons to his scholarship. His research is largely concerned with how economic, political and social changes can impact policing.

"In many ways the themes are the same here and abroad," he says, noting that he would also like to study how global climate change and emerging diseases have impacted policing in Africa. "Globalization and de-industrialization with the manufacturing industry created a whole new set of policing problems in New York City. Up until about 25 years ago, South Korea had a closed political system and a closed economy. But as both have opened up recently in the form of free trade and elections, there are some new problems for the police like an increase in street crimes."

Along with conducting his research in South Korea, Vitale says he will also be lecturing at his host university.

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar program—part of the flagship international exchange program sponsored by the State Department and created to foster international understanding—annually sends some 1,100 faculty members to nearly 125 countries to teach and conduct research.

1 comment:

  1. ps - credit to the BC/CUNY folks for that write up.

    ReplyDelete