More About the Author
Richard R. E. Kania joined Jacksonville State University of Alabama in December 2005 to be the department head of Criminal Justice. Prior to that, he had been at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke since 1999, leading their Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. From 1982 to 1999, he was at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, having risen to full professor to head the Department of Justice and Policy Studies there. He also has taught at UNC-Charlotte and for the Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville. Kania was a Senior Fulbright Professor for the Central European University in Warsaw, Poland, while on sabbatical in 1997-1998. In 2004-2005, he was awarded his second Fulbright to teach at the Belarusian State University in Minsk, in the Republic of Belarus.
Kania originally majored in anthropology at Florida State University, where he earned his BA with Honors in 1968. He continued his studies of anthropology at the University of Virginia, earning an MA there in 1974, and wrote his MA thesis on conflict resolution and the law ways of the Hopi of Arizona. In between the BA and the MA degrees, he served in the Army in Berlin and in Vietnam. He also was a city police officer in Virginia, and that experience led him to "change his major" midway into his doctoral studies and redirected him into a teaching career in criminal justice.
He is extensively published, with articles in more than 20 scholarly journals and a number of book chapters. He has authored one previous book, co-edited another, and has edited one journal special issue and several major government and research reports. His articles have been published in Poland, Belarus, Russia, and Romania. He is the recipient of several awards and grants and has held various offices in professional and public service organizations.
Kania served in the U.S. Army, working in operations, personnel, intelligence, contracting, facilities, and logistics assignments. He commanded an army engineer company in combat in Vietnam and served on the Army Staff in the Pentagon, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve. His civilian work experience includes serving as a police officer, criminal justice and public safety planner and as academic department head for three colleges.
