UW’s Burd to Give Sandeen Lecture Dec. 11

Kayla Burd, a University of Wyoming assistant professor in psychology, law, cognition and cognitive development, will deliver this year’s Sandeen Lecture in the Humanities Monday, Dec. 11, at 4 p.m. in Room 506 of Coe Library.

Burd’s lecture, “The Plight and Peril of Children in Wyoming’s Juvenile System: A Legal, Historical and Psychological Analysis,” also will be livestreamed via WyoCast here.

Wyoming’s juvenile justice system is under the microscope, as the state has some of the highest confinement rates across the U.S. Although the juvenile system has morphed over time to incorporate more developmentally sensitive procedures and processes, there remains a large gap between the state of the juvenile system in Wyoming and what legal, criminal and developmental scholars consider to be best practices for crime prevention, deterrence and rehabilitation for these youth.

Burd’s lecture will provide a historical, legal and psychological analysis of Wyoming’s juvenile system as well as recommendations for improvements based on developmental psychology.

The Sandeen Lecture in the Humanities is named for Eric Sandeen, founding director of the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research. The lecture is co-sponsored by the humanities research institute and the Wyoming Humanities Council.

The Sandeen Lecture takes place annually in December, on the Monday of finals week. Each year, the faculty fellows in the cohort of the institute’s Humanities Research Group vote to decide which fellow will deliver the lecture.

Following the lecture, there will be a reception at the Cooper House.