Staff profile

Dr Sue Davies

Senior Lecturer, Legal Studies Program Convenor

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

MB 460, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA (Hons-Melbourne), PhD (Melbourne).

Area of study

Legal Studies

Brief Profile

I am particularly interested in analysing how law – as knowledge and as practice – relates to broader patterns of representation and power. The relationship between law, culture and social order is a theme that I continue to explore in my writing and research, particularly in relation to crime and criminal justice. My publications span a range of fields including critical criminology, socio-legal history, punishment and penality, cultural studies, and gender and sexuality studies.

Research interests

Courts and Sentencing

- Cultural analysis of representations of crime and punishment

- Theories and practices of punishment and penality

Criminological Theories

- Critical criminology

Law and Society

- Sexuality, Crime and Law

- Socio-legal history

Teaching Units

  • LST1LAS - Law and Legal Consciousness.
  • LST1CCR: Crime and Criminology.
  • LST2/3CLC - Crime, Law and Culture.
  • LST2/3PIC - Punishment in Context.
  • LST3LSW - Legal Studies Workplace.

Recent Publications

  • Davies, S 2008, ‘Better off Not Knowing? Power, Knowledge and the Limits of Legal Education’, Sister In Law, 1.
  • Davies, S 2005, 'Power and Knowledge: The Making and Managing of the "Unfit"', in J Bessant, R Hil and R Watts (eds), Violation of Trust: How Schools and Welfare Systems Fail Children and Young People, Ashgate, Aldershot, 1-14.
  • Davies, S 2004, 'Shining on in the gloom: 9/11 and the creation of an appearance of consensus', Media International Australia, 113, 44-54.
  • Davies, S & Cook, S 2002, 'Jail Babes: Turning the Sex of Women’s Imprisonment Inside Out', in M Thornton (ed.), Romancing the Tomes: Popular Culture, Law and Feminism, Cavendish, London, 201-218.
  • Davies, S & Cook, S 2001, 'Nothing Ever Changes: Imprisoning Women and the Discourse of Needs', Women in Prison Journal, 2, 24-26.
  • Davies, S & Cook, S 2000, 'Breaking the Silence of Death, Women in Prison Journal, 1, 11-19.
  • Davies, S & Cook, S 2000, 'Is there Life after Prison? Women, Drugs and Post-Release Mortality', in Fitzroy Legal Service Services Directory for Drug and Alcohol Users 2000, Fitzroy Legal Service, Melbourne, 182-88.
  • Cook, S & Davies, S (eds), 1999, Harsh Punishment: International Experiences of Women's Imprisonment, Northeastern University Press, Boston.
  • Philips, D & Davies, S (eds), 1994, A Nation of Rogues? Essays in the Social History of Crime, Law and Punishment in Nineteenth Century Australia, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.

Research projects

  • Crime/Culture/Australia
  • Law, Legal Studies and ‘Legal Consciousness’