Published: March 29, 2022

UT To Hold First Annual Spaulding Speaker Series

The University of Tampa’s Honors Program will host the annual Spaulding Speaker Series for the first time on April 7 at 6 p.m. in the Crescent Club on the ninth floor of the Vaughn Center. The speaker will be Robert Agnew, one of the founding scholars of modern-day criminology. Tickets can be reserved online for free. The event is open to the public.

The speaker of the first annual Spaulding Speaker Series will be Robert Agnew, one of the founding scholars of modern-day criminology. Photo courtesy of Robert Agnew

Agnew, Samuel Candler Dobbs professor emeritus of sociology at Emory University in Atlanta, focuses his research on the causes of crime, particularly his general strain theory of delinquency, which he created in 1992. General strain theory is a part of the social structure theories of crime, which contends that social forces push or influence people to commit crime.

He has published over 150 articles and seven books, including Toward a Unified Criminology: Integrating Assumptions About Crime, People and Society (NYU Press, 2011); Pressured Into Crime: An Overview of General Strain Theory (Oxford, 2006); and Why Do Criminals Offend: A General Theory of Crime and Delinquency (Oxford, 2005). He served as president of the American Society of Criminology (ASC), is an ASC Fellow, received the ASC’s Edwin H. Sutherland Award and was elected to the Southern Sociological Society Roll of Honor.

“This speaker series is thanks to the generosity of the Spaulding family, to which we are grateful. We are very excited to bring such a renowned scholar as Dr. Agnew and to give students the chance to interact with him,” said Kacy Tillman, co-director of the Honors Program and professor of English. “We hope to continue to offer this series annually so that we might inspire young scholars for years to come, as they prepare to make an impact on their own fields of study.”