Dr. Kristen Connolly

Assistant Professor Connolly received her BS degree from Hilbert in 2007. She went on to earn her M.S. from SUNY Buffalo State College in 2010, and her PhD from the University at Buffalo in 2021. For her PhD, she qualified in the areas of Law and Urban Sociology. Her dissertation, titled “Doctor’s, Patients and Opioids” examined the evolution and history of U.S. law with regards to the regulation of physicians; the education, prescribing practices and opinions of physicians with regards to the criminalization of their profession during the opioid epidemic, and the inequality most patients face when seeking treatment for substance use disorder.

Assistant Professor Connolly has volunteer experience as a housing court liaison for the City of Buffalo Housing Court and was previously a research fellow with the Center for the Development of Human Services at Buffalo State College. She has over 7 years of experience teaching college-level courses at various institutions in Western New York, many of which focus on drug use or other issues within the criminal justice system.

Areas of Expertise

• Drug use/ Drug Treatment
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Sociology of Law/ History of Law
• Criminology
• Inequality

Courses

• CJ 305 Research Methods
• CJ 101 Introduction to Criminal Justice
• CJ 204 Crime and Society
• CJ 205 Drugs, Crime and the Criminal Justice System

Professional Memberships

American Sociological Association
Section: Crime, Law and Deviance
Professional Service

Peer Reviewer

Journal of Drug Issues, Contemporary Sociology

Publications

Connolly, Kristen and Robert Granfield. 2017. “Building Recovery Capital: The Role of Faith-Based Communities in the Re-Integration of Formerly Incarcerated Drug Offenders.” Journal of Drug Issues 47(3): 370-82.

Conference Presentations

Granfield, Robert and Kristen Connolly. 2016. “Building Recovery Capital in a Neoliberal World: The Role of Faith Based Organizations in the Recovery and Reentry of Drug Offenders.” Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting, Boston, Massachusetts. March 17-20.

Granfield, Robert and Kristen Connolly. 2015. “Social Capital, Faith Based Organizations, and the Re-Integration of Persistent Adult Offenders.” Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting, New York, New York. February 26-March 1.