CLS Ph.D. candidate wins DTEI’s Most Promising Future Faculty Award
One of the first experiences for Jordan Grasso (they/them) on the UC Irvine campus was talking with Danny Mann, who was then the director of graduate student and postdoctoral instructional development with the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI). That conversation led Grasso to apply for and receive the California State University Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program Fellowship.
Fast forward nearly four years, and Grasso heard again from Mann, who is now the DTEI’s interim executive director.
“On behalf of the Council on Teaching, Learning, and Student Experience (CTLSE), Graduate Division, and DTEI, I’m pleased to share that you are one of the Most Promising Future Faculty Award winners this year,” wrote Mann in a June 30 email to the fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society (CLS).
“Being named a Most Promising Future Faculty is summative evidence of all the opportunities and successes I have had while at UCI,” says Grasso. “I wouldn’t have been named a Most Promising Future Faculty without the support and encouragement of several faculty including my advisor, Dr. Ana Muñiz, and Dr. Val Jenness, who nominated me for the award.”
Grasso anticipates completing their dissertation this academic year with the help of a Quarterly Fellowship through CLS. Having previously completed the Law, Society, and Culture Emphasis through UCI Law, they are also finishing the Feminist Studies Emphasis through the School of Humanities’ Gender and Sexuality Studies Department.
“My research broadly explores two lines of inquiry related to police violence and queer safety,” Grasso explains. “I am interested in understanding the causes and effects of police violence, especially related to how incorporating militaristic ideologies and practices in policing facilitates violence. My dissertation is a response to these questions as it explores how communities that have historically (and contemporarily) not been able to rely on the police (because of ongoing violence) create their own systems of safety. I first apply new abolitionist perspectives to analyze how the law and law enforcement fail to make a safer world, especially for those furthest at the margins. I then consider how LGBTQ+ women and gender-expansive people conceptualize and practice safety outside the state’s grasp.”
Besides the assistance and encouragement from DTEI, Grasso credits teaching assistant opportunities with CLS Distinguished Professor Jenness, Associate Professor Brandon Golob, and Assistant Professor Lee Cabatingan with providing “the necessary tools to support the development of courses through DTEI’s Scholars Program as well as teach my own courses. Additionally, the ability to take various classes across the campus and opportunities to further my knowledge in other fields, like gender and sexuality studies and sociolegal studies, allowed me to truly become an interdisciplinary scholar and incorporate methods and theory beyond my specific discipline. My experiences with and support from faculty in other departments, like Dr. Jeanne Scheper (Gender and Sexuality Studies) and Dr. Swethaa Ballakrishnen (Law), pushed my research questions in ways I never imagined possible before coming to UCI.”
Grasso can find meaning beyond the monetary prize and engraved plaque that came with being named a Most Promising Future Faculty Award winner.
“Though I am still learning when and how to say ‘no’ to some opportunities, the award is a response to having said ‘yes’ when teaching, research, and service opportunities were presented to me,” she says. “It’s a testament to all I have learned at UCI as a student, academic, teacher, and researcher committed to public scholarship.”
— Matt Coker