The Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice is pleased to announce that Nathan Kruis, PhD '19, was awarded the 2020 Michael C. Braswell/Routledge Outstanding Dissertation Award. Kruis' dissertation, titled "Stigma and Perceptions of Opioid Users Among Criminal Justice Professionals and Students," was completed under the supervision of Alida Merlo.
This award is presented at the Academy of Criminal Justices Sciences annual meeting and recognizes an outstanding criminal justice-related dissertation. To be considered, the applicant must have completed the dissertation within the past two years and must submit a full copy of the dissertation for review. Entries are judged based upon relevancy of the research problem, quality of the theoretical orientation, rigor of the research and documentation, and quality of writing.
As the winner, Kruis received a $300 stipend and the opportunity to have his dissertation considered for publication as a Routledge Monograph.
Following his graduation from IUP in 2019, Kruis accepted a tenure-track position at Penn State-Altoona.
Congratulations to Nathan Kruis!