Department of Criminal Justice

Assistant Professor

Email: sbrightm@uncfsu.edu
Phone: (910) 672-2196
Office: Lauretta Taylor Building, Room 337

Educational BackgroundPh.D., Sociology Western Michigan University

Areas of Expertise

1. Women's Rights
2. Social Movements
3. Human Rights
4. International Law
5. Criminological Theory

Professor Sara Brightman earned an undergraduate degree in Sociology and Woman’s Studies from Central Michigan University. She earned her Master’s and PhD in Sociology from Western Michigan University. Professor Brightman’s areas of interest include state and corporate crime as well as the victims of state and corporate crimes. Other areas of interest include international law, human rights, woman’s rights, social movements and criminological theory.

Professor Brightman has conducted research on state crimes by police and the judicial system in Pakistan, as well as state crimes by police and military in Nigeria. She has worked on a project involving United Nations Peacekeepers and the accusations that they are committing sexual violence against women in refugee camps. Professor Brightman’s dissertation addressed the systematic nature of sexual violence against women committed by United States actors, focusing on the military, police, corrections officers, and boarder control agents.