Dr. Knowles image

Curriculum Vita

feknowles@valdosta.edu

I received my Ph. D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2004. I have been at Valdosta State University since the fall of 2003. Prior to that, I developed and ran a very successful criminal justice program at Central Methodist University in Missouri. I inherited the program at Central in 1996 having retired from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, Florida as a Lieutenant. I have served in most capacities, as a deputy/officer, investigator and supervisor in Law Enforcement and County level detention (corrections). While with the Sheriff’s Office, I was involved in the planning of and the development of training for a radical departure in county-level detention operation. We built and operated a 1500 inmate capacity Direct Supervision jail.

My research interests are mainly in the areas of ethnicity, class and gender and the law, and the construction of law as a social institution and an instrument of social control. I am very involved in Native American issues, in general and in their juxtaposition with the law. I am also immersed in Environmental Justice, and Global Justice issues. Areas in which I teach are Procedural Law, Criminological Theory (my favorite) and Victimology. I teach at both the Graduate and undergraduate levels.

I, like Dr. Prine, am a local product. I was raised here in South Georgia. I enjoy the swamps and forests and spend most of my elective time outside. My outside interests are varied and run from farming to blues music to southern cooking. Feel free to email me or, if it’s convenient, come on by the office.