talks this week

i'm giving two talks on felon disenfranchisement this week. tuesday october 18 i'll be at macalester college in an event sponsored by the legal studies program and the sociology department. i'm on at 4:30 in the john b. davis lecture hall. the macalester campus on saint paul's grand avenue looks especially beautiful in october but i've never really had a chance to visit. my grandparents lived in the neighborhood for many years and i think grandma even worked at the college as an administrative assistant. mac has long had a reputation for art and politics, so it should be fun. if i get a few minutes free i'll head to the running track to soak up some inspiration. according to the strib:

St. Paul was where he [green day's billie joe armstrong] wrote some of the songs for the politically charged "American Idiot," ... In the summer of 2003, he had walked around the track at Macalester College in St. Paul, writing the songs in his head.

nice! i try to write articles in my head while running, but they fade once i get back to a computer. as soon as i finish teaching thursday, i fly to washington state university in pullman, wa. my felon voting talk is friday noon in CUE 18 and i'll visit the criminology reading group at 3 in wilson for a discussion of age, crime, and desistance. i had great fun interviewing at wsu as a new ph.d. so i'm really looking forward to a return visit to the palouse. wsu has long been a wonderful home for sociological criminology so i should return with fresh ideas. i'm no troubadour, but traveling around giving research talks has to rank as one of the best (of many) academic perks.