The Common Session in Critical Criminology took place in New York City last week at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center.

Given its theme – “Looking Forward: Resistance, Repression, and Possibility” – the conference grappled with the role of critical criminology in the age of “forty-five” (the very apt sobriquet for a president who has a pathological need to externalize his surname, preferably in big gold letters).

True to the theme, conference attendees participated in the sporadic protests organized in anticipation of forty-five’s first return to his hometown since his inauguration, the same day that House Republicans voted to give the rich a tax cut at the expense of healthcare for the poor.

Yet that act of cruelty in the nation’s capital was overshadowed by a harrowing assault on one of the University of Hamburg’s masters students in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Our thoughts and best wishes go to her as she recovers in the care of family and friends.

Despite the cloud of violence, the conference did end on a positive note with live music and good company to wrap up the 65th session in critical criminology.

Thanks go to the staff and grad students at John Jay’s and CUNY who made it happen.