Research into the brutal shakedown of the Oʻahu Community Correctional Center in 1981, and the experience and backgrounds of delinquent girls and incarcerated women in Hawaiʻi are highlights of the work of former University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa women’s studies program director and professor emerita Meda Chesney-Lind, which is now available online. University Archives has made Chesney-Lind’s collection of research and academic work as a scholar and activist with a focus on women and crime available on ArchivesSpace.

Meda Chesney-Lind

Her extensive contribution to the field of feminist criminology has been recognized nationally, with a large number of publications and prestigious awards.

Chesney-Lind has been with UH Mānoa’s women’s studies department (renamed to the Department of Women, Gender and Sexualily Studies) since 1986. She also previously taught at Honolulu Community College as a lecturer.

Spanning from the 1970s to 2010s, the Meda Chesney-Lind papers provides valuable research materials, including material from various courses taught in juvenile delinquency, human sexuality, women’s studies, criminology, sociology of gender and sex roles; keynote addresses and presentations; and more.

“I have always been on the margins in terms of my work,” said Chesney-Lind. “Living in Hawaiʻi gave me a unique perspective on crime and justice, particularly around issues of race. Of course, being female in a predominantly male field was also influential, directing me to focus on the experiences of girls and women in a largely male oriented criminal justice system.”

You can find the entire article at: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2022/12/20/uh-criminologist-papers-go-online/.