Dean, School of Social Science and Human Services

Year Joined RCNJ: 2007

Contact Information

• Phone: (201) 684-7624
• Email: alorenz@ramapo.edu
• Office: ASB-431

Education:

• Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Political Science
• M.A., San Diego State University, Political Science
• B.S., California State University, Chico, Political Science

Convening Group:

• Law & Society

Courses Offered:

• Introduction to Law & Society
• Contemporary Issues in Law & Society
• Death Penalty in America
• Lyrics and the Law
• Constitutional Liberties
• American Legal History
• Directed Readings
• Thesis Supervision

Teaching Interest:

• Legal culture, music and law, constitutive theory, critical race theory, constitutional law, capital punishment.

Research Interest:

• Comedy and law, music and law, constitutive theory, critical race theory, free speech, capital punishment.

Recent Publications:

• (Forthcoming) Judge Not: The Juridical Impact of Music on Television.
• (Forthcoming) Chanting for Recognition: Critical Race Feminist Legal Theory and the Performance of Law.
• (2020) “Speech and National Past Times: The NFL, the Flag, and Professional Athletes in Free Speech Theory: Understanding the Controversies, Peter Lang International Academic Publishing.
• (2017) “Laughing Matters: Critical Race Theory and Comedy,” in Street Level Sovereignty, Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
• (2013) “The State of Nature and Laws of Seinfeld: Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That,” in The International Journal of the Semiotics of Law.
• (2012) “Islands and Islandness in Rock Music Lyrics,” in Island Studies Journal, May 2012, Vol. 7, No. 1, 67-96.
• (2010) “The Windows Remain Broken: How Zero Tolerance Destroyed Due Process,” in Public Integrity, Summer 2010, 201-213.
• (2007) Lyrics and the Law: The Constitution of Law in Music. Van De Plas Publishing.
• (2005) “Critical Race Reggae: The Sound of a Narrative,” in Contemporary Issues of the Semiotics of Law.  Eds.  Anne Wagner, Tracy Summerfield, and Farid Samir Benavides Vanegas. Hart Publishing, 2005.