School of Law: Law School Staff - Derek Dalton

Derek Dalton
PhD(Melb), M.Crim(Melb), B.Ed(Melb)

Lecturer
Director of Studies (Criminal Justice) 

Derek came to Flinders Law School in 2004 having recently lectured in Justice Studies at Charles Sturt University in NSW. Before joining CSU, Derek completed a Master of Criminology and a PhD at the University of Melbourne. Derek's Master's thesis 'The Deviant Gaze: Imagining the homosexual as criminal through cinematic and legal discourses'  was grounded in cultural studies and engaged with cinematic texts, post-structural theories and theories of representation. Derek further explored the intersections of cultural studies and criminology through his doctoral research. His PhD, titled: 'Homocriminality: the legal and cultural imagination of gay subjectivity', traced the complex ways that 'criminality' is conjoined with 'homosexuality' to produce the unique 'homocriminal' subject. The research explored how gay men (and their desires) have been perceived and represented as abject, diseased and threatening - warranting legal regulation and repudiation. Additionally, the research documented the diverse forms gay resistance to legal scrutiny and regulation takes. Derek has a diverse employment history that includes High School teaching and four years in the Victorian Public Service assisting victims of crime. He has published in various forums and has presented at numerous national and international conferences. Derek's current research interests include how gay men, lesbians and transgender people manage their exposure to the risk of homophobic violence. He is interested in cinematic representations of criminality and the complex ways that law both facilitates and responds to acts of genocide.  His current research interest clusters around themes of witnessing and testimony in relation to the Holocaust.
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