Curriculum Vitae

Pamela Donovan

Education

Ph.D. Sociology, City University of New York Graduate School, February 2001
Dissertation Title: “Crime Legends in Old and New Media”
Chair: Prof. Mark Fishman, City University of New York Graduate Center

M. Phil Sociology, City University of New York Graduate School, Fall 1996
Subfields of Specialization: Social and Critical Theory, Sociology of Mass Media and Popular Culture, Urban Sociology

B.A. Liberal Arts, Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, Spring 1989
Dual Concentration in Anthropology and Communications

Teaching and Research Positions:

Associate Professor of Sociology (Tenured), Social Work and Criminal Justice, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, 2008 – 2013

Executive Director, Institute for Culture and Society, College of Liberal Arts, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, 2010 – 2012

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, January 2002 – September 2008

Postdoctoral Fellow, Behavioral Science Training Program, National Development and Research Institutes, New York, New York, January 2001 – January 2002.

Visiting Instructor in Sociology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York, Fall 2000

Adjunct Lecturer in Sociology, Queens College, Flushing, New York, 1993 – 1997

Adjunct Instructor in Education, Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology, New York University School of Education, New York, New York, Spring 1996

Graduate Teaching Assistant in Sociology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, New York, 1992 – 1994

Book and Article Publications:

Pamela Donovan (2016), Drink Spiking and Predatory Drugging: A Modern History, New York: Palgrave.

Pamela Donovan (2015), “Rumors and Urban Legends” International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Elsevier

Pamela Donovan, (2011) Book Review of Moving People, Moving Images: Cinema and Trafficking in the New Europe by William Brown, Dina Iordanova, and Leshu Torchin, St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies and College Gate Press, 2010, Cineaste, v.36, no.2, Spring, p.77(2)

Adam Burgess, Pamela Donovan, and Sarah E.H. Moore (2009), “Embodying Uncertainty? Understanding Heightened Risk Perception of Drink ‘Spiking’” British Journal of Criminology, 49: 6, 848-862.

Pamela Donovan (2007) “Book Review: Organ Theft Legends and Rumor Mills” Sociological Inquiry, Volume 77: 1, 128-130

Pamela Donovan. (2007) “How idle is idle talk? One hundred years of rumor research” Diogene/Diogenes, no. 213 [French version 2006; English 2007]

Pamela Donovan. (2006) “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” “Purity Campaigns,” and “Josephine Butler, 1828-1906” in M.H. Ditmore, ed., Encyclopedia of Sex Work and Prostitution, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing

Pamela Donovan (2005), “Television Crime Drama,” in Phyllis Gerstenfeld, ed., Criminal Justice, Volume 3, Pasadena, CA: Salem Press

Pamela Donovan (2004), “Television Police Shows,” in Larry E. Sullivan and Marie Simonetti Rosen, eds., Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement, Volume 1: State and Local, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications

Pamela Donovan (2004), No Way of Knowing: Crime, Urban Legends, and the Internet, New York: Routledge

Pamela Donovan (2002), “Crime Legends in a New Medium: Fact, Fiction, and Loss of Authority,” Theoretical Criminology 6(2), 189-215

Pamela Donovan (1998), “Armed with the Power of Television: Reality Crime Programming and the Reconstruction of Law and Order in the United States,” in Mark Fishman and Grey Cavender, Editors, Entertaining Crime: Television Reality Programs, New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 117 – 137

Pamela Donovan (1997), “Book Review: Martha Grace Duncan’s Beloved Prisons, Romantic Outlaws: The Unconscious Meanings of Crime and Punishment,” Theoretical Criminology 1(3), 396 – 399

Lynn S. Chancer and Pamela Donovan (1994), “The Mass Psychology of Punishment,” Social Justice, vol. 21, #3, Fall, 50 – 72

Pamela Donovan (1992), “High Noon in Bethesda: Medicine, Newsweeklies, and the Early Phase of the AIDS Epidemic,” Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, vol. 9, #2, Fall, 11 – 19

Conference Papers and Professional Conference Activities:

Pamela Donovan, “Limbo Stuff and Social Science: Understanding Self-Storage Consumption in the U.S.” ASA Consumers and Consumption Section Mini-Conference, Rutgers University – Camden, NJ, August 2018

Pamela Donovan, “Rumor Studies, Post-Truth, and Fake Everything” 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Montréal, Quebec, August 2017.

Pamela Donovan, “Date Rape Drugs, Legislation, Anti-Reform, and the War on Drugs” 87th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA, February 2017.

Pamela Donovan, “That Man’s Devices: The New Technologies of Spiked Drink Detection” 85th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, New York, NY, February 2015.

Presider, “Theories and Narratives of Trauma: Journeys and Memories” 84th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, MD, February 2014.

Pamela Donovan, “Media Reporting on Avoiding Date Rape Drugs: the most common frames and formulas are the least helpful” 84th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, MD, February 2014.

Pamela Donovan, “The Predatory and Criminal Use of Chloroform: Medical and Popular Accounts in the 1800s”, 83nd Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA, March 2013.

Presider, “Cultural Consumption, Irony, and Authenticity – A Roundtable,” 82nd Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, New York, NY, February 2012.

Conversations with Gary Alan Fine, Pamela Donovan, and Nicholas DiFonzo – “Narrating Rumor, Belief, and Truth,” 82nd Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, New York, NY, February 2012.

Pamela Donovan, “Rumors beyond Orleans: Predatory Drugging in the 1960s and 1970s.” 82nd Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, New York, NY, February 2012.

Pamela Donovan, “Coerced Intoxication and the “New Juggernaut”: An Early History of Chloral Hydrate Fears,” 81th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA February 2011.

Presider, Regular Paper Session—Criminal Justice and Society, 81th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA February 2011.

Presider, Regular Paper Session— Changing Concepts of Legal Thinking, 80th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA, February 2010

Pamela Donovan, “Early Drugging/Spiking Cases and Anti-Alcohol Movements,” 80th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA, February 2010

Pamela Donovan “Comparative Media Coverage of the Drink-Spiking Threat in the US and UK” 79th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Baltimore, MD, February 2009

Pamela Donovan, “The Role of Uncertainty in Knowledge of Suspected Drink Spiking Incidents,” 78th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, New York, NY, February 2008

Heather S. Feldhaus and Pamela Donovan, “Textbook v. Reality in Research: What Students and Faculty Can Learn from Collaborative Research,” 77th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society Philadelphia, PA, March 2007

Heather S. Feldhaus, Pamela Donovan, and Nicholas Vargas, “Self-Nomination: Opportunities and Problems with a Methodological Departure in Survey Research for a Needs Assessment Project,” 76th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA, February 2006

Heather S. Feldhaus, Pamela Donovan, Ashley Martin, and Nicholas Vargas, “Roundtable: Conducting Community Needs Assessments: A Work Circle on Design, Implementation, and Adapting to Common Problems,” Society for Applied Sociology/Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology, Philadelphia, PA, August 17, 2005

Heather S. Feldhaus and Pamela Donovan, “Holiday Celebrations in Parenting Magazines: the Last 15 Years,” 75th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Washington, DC, March 2005

Presider, Refereed Roundtable on Issues in Crime, 76th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA, February 2006

Presider, Refereed Roundtable on Social Control, Neighborhood, and Social Ties, 75th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Washington, DC, March 2005

“White Slavery and the Community of Innocents,” Panel Conference on Sex Trafficking, Public Policy, and the Media, New York University Program in American Studies, New York, New York, November 2004

“How Idle is Idle Talk? One Hundred Years of Rumor Research,” 52nd Annual Meeting, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Chicago, Illinois, August 2002

“Stories from the Lower Depths: An Examination of Apocryphal Tales about Crimes against the Body,” 50th Annual Meeting, American Society of Criminology, Washington, D.C., November 1998

“Life without Father: Social and Psychoanalytic Approaches to Fatherlessness in Feminist Social Theory,” Women and Society Conference, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, June 1996

“America’s Most Wanted: Surveillance and Spectacle,” 46th Annual Meeting, American Society of Criminology, Miami, Florida, November 1994

“The Realities of Reality Crime Television,” Law and Society Association, Phoenix, Arizona, June 1994

Reviewing and Editing Activities:

Grants Reviewer, Austrian Science Fund, Humanities and Social Sciences Division, Spring 2011

Manuscript Reviewer, Communication Theory journal, Fall 2011

Tutorial Web Quiz, for Larry K. Gaines and Roger LeRoy Miller’s textbook Criminal Justice in Action, Seventh Edition, Cengage Learning, 2012.

Professional Memberships:

Eastern Sociological Society, Culinary Historians of New York

Selected Awards and Fellowships:

Dean’s Salute for Excellence, College of Liberal Arts, Bloomsburg University, 2004

Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Queens College and CUNY Graduate School, 1994 – 1997

Helena Rubenstein Tuition Fellowship, CUNY Graduate School, Fall 1995 and Fall 1996

Robert Gilliece Fellowship, CUNY Graduate School, 1990 – 1994