Albert Dzur, Ph.D.
Albert W. Dzur, Ph.D.
Position: Distinguished Research Professor
Phone: 419-372-7270
Email: awdzur@bgsu.edu
Address: 111 Williams Hall
AFFILIATIONS
- Distinguished Research Professor, with a joint appointment in Philosophy, Bowling Green State University
- Associate, Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
- Associate, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Albert W. Dzur studies citizen participation and power-sharing in criminal justice, health care, public administration, and education. His work on democratic professionalism focuses on innovators who welcome citizen agency in these domains, the barriers they face, and the resources available to link small-scale efforts to broad democratic renewal.
Dzur's research has been recognized by the McCourtney Institute of Democracy at Penn State University, which awarded it the 2017 Brown Democracy Medal for contributions to democratic theory, by the Ohio House of Representatives, which issued a special research commendation in 2018, and by the BGSU Board of Trustees, which designated him a Distinguished Research Professor in 2019.
He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Canberra, the University of Edinburgh, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the Kettering Foundation, the University of Oslo, and the University of Tromsø. He writes regularly for the Boston Review and the National Civic Review, where he is a contributing editor. He is on the editorial board of the Howard Journal of Crime and Justice and on the editorial team of the International Journal of Restorative Justice.
Fields of Study
Democratic theory; democratic innovation; citizen participation in governance; professionalism; restorative justice; power sharing in public administration, criminal justice, health care, and education; civic agency in highly marginalized populations; inclusion in social problem solving
Education
- M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara
Selected Publications
Recent Articles:
- 2024. “Citizens’ Governance Spaces” (with Carolyn M. Hendriks). In The Cambridge Handbook of Community Empowerment, ed. B.D. Christens, pp. 193-215. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• 2023. “Are Democratic Police Departments Possible?” National Civic Review 112 (1): 30-36.
• 2022. “Coproducing Democratic Relationships” (with lead authors Mick McKeown and Pamela Fisher). In Coproduction: Towards Equality in Mental Healthcare, eds. J. Raffay, D. Bryant, P. Fisher, and M. McKeown, pp. 190-201. Monmouth UK: PCCS Books.
• 2022. “Refunctioning the Police in Longmont” (with John McKnight). National Civic Review 110 (4): 6-16.
• 2021. “Citizens’ Governance Spaces: Democratic Action Through Disruptive Collective Problem-Solving” (with Carolyn M. Hendriks). Political Studies 70 (3): 680–700.
• 2021. “Uncommon Schools: Citizen-Centric Institutions of Higher Education and the Development of Democratic Professionals.” The Good Society special issue on “Institutions as Catalysts for Civic Renewal” (1-2): 100-118.
• 2020. “Moving from Collaboration to Coproduction in the Opioid Crisis.” National Civic Review 109 (3): 15-28.
Books:
- Democracy in Action: Collective Problem Solving in Citizens’ Governance Spaces (with Carolyn M. Hendriks). New York: Oxford University Press, in press 2024.
• Democracy Inside: Participatory Innovation in Unlikely Places. NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
• Rebuilding Public Institutions Together: Professionals and Citizens in a Participatory Democracy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017.
• Democratic Theory and Mass Incarceration (Edited, with Ian Loader and Richard Sparks). NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.
• Punishment, Participatory Democracy, and the Jury. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Democratic Professionalism: Citizen Participation and the Reconstruction of Professional Ethics, Identity, and Practice. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2008.
Courses Taught
- American Political Thought
- Democracy and the Citizen (Service/Engagement Class)
- Democracy in Trouble: Critique, Innovation, Renewal
- Modern Political Ideologies
- Social and Political Philosophy
- Western Political Thought
- Classical Political Thought
- Democracy in Trouble: Critique, Innovation, Renewal
- Democratic Political Theory
- History of Political Philosophy
- Public Administration Ethics
- Scholar in Residence Fellowship Award, Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, Bowling Green State University, 2019
- Distinguished International Visitor, University of Canberra, Australia, 2018
- Recipient, Research Commendation, Ohio House of Representatives, for contributions to democratic theory and practice, 2018
- Recipient, Brown Democracy Medal, McCourtney Institute for Democracy, Penn State University, 2017
- "Research on Public Engagement Professionals." Kettering Foundation, 2016-18.
- "Re-imagining Professionalism: Towards Co-Production" (with Pamela Fisher, PI). Economic and Social Research Council (UK), 2015-17.
- "Public Restorative Justice." Porticus of North America Foundation, 2014-15.
- Democratic Organization: this book project builds on research on citizens’ initiatives in the forthcoming book co-authored with Australian National University professor Carolyn M. Hendriks, Democracy in Action, and research on democratic innovations within professionalized institutions in previous books Democratic Professionalism and Democracy Inside. This current project looks closely into the ways democratic organizations can reinforce citizen agency, support norms of nonviolence, and foster caring relations.
Democratic Placemaking: this series of case studies focuses on municipal-level efforts in the US and abroad that help people contribute their unique skills to shoring up democratic norms and practices where they live and work. How are innovators in the public sector and civil society linking and sustaining ecosystems of democratic organizations? How do these ecosystems help people routinely, enjoyably, and meaningfully make their public worlds better?
Participatory Democracy Today: this research investigates the normative and empirical connections between democratic norms and practices inside workplaces and organizations and citizen agency regarding contentious issues outside in civil society. This research program updates the “spillover thesis” with a broader, “democratic ecosystems,” approach with greater purchase on contemporary problems of polarization, exclusion, and distrust.
Updated: 09/24/2024 03:31PM