From On Campus, June 2000

PERSPECTIVE ON CHILDREN IN SOCIETY MAY LEAD TO SENIOR'S LIFE CHALLLENGE

By Adrienne Wiley '01

When Meg Davis arrived on campus, she didn't know much about sociology. She was interested in political science, having tagged along with her father to political campaign speeches as a kid, helping go door-to-door for later campaigns, and working as an intern for Senator Russ Feingold. To her, political science major was an obvious extension of these interests.

But "spring semester of my freshman year, I was looking for a fourth course. 'The Construction of Social Problems' taught by Assistant Professor of Sociology Jean Bacon caught my eye, and the rest is history," she explains. She was intrigued to delve deeper into sociology. And, in her junior year, she enrolled in the Winter Study titled "Children and the Courts" taught by attorney Judith Locke of the Department of Social Services. Under Locke's instruction the class tagged along with social workers on their visits to homes, foster homes, and shelters. Davis said she found her calling, and she's pursued this interest through her senior thesis, "Innocent Creatures and Autonomous Beings: The Dichotomous Images of American children," which she worked on under the advisement of Robert Jackall, Class of 1956 Professor of Sociology and Social Thought.

She has explored the historical images of the "innocent, dependent child, in need of protection and the image of the adult-like, competent, potentially dangerous child" into the twentieth century, and "how these two conflicting images of children and their accompanying sentiments affect our contemporary cultural and legal responses to children's issues," including parental response to state intervention in child affairs, and the relevance of the therapeutic and "get tough" orientations in child law and advocacy.

Davis began her research last summer in Dane County, Wisconsin, interviewing district attorneys, judges, social workers, public defenders, and a court commissioner about their experiences in juvenile law and interactions with children and parents. "I also interned with the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, researching children's legal issues, and monitoring children's education and welfare legislation."

Back at Williams for her senior year, she completed her field work, looking at the juvenile court in Pittsfield, and, as she'd done with the Winter Study course, following a social worker into the homes of the children she was rapidly learning about.

Davis is a native of Madison, Wisconsin, which she proudly notes was voted the number one place to live in America several years ago. "I think that Madison's active social and political environment helped to nurture the various interests that eventually culminated in my thesis topic," Davis explains, also citing her excellent public high school for preparing her for Williams.

She is considering pursuing child advocacy into her professional life. "The more I learn about children's legal issues, the more desire I have to address them," she says. She will begin law school at the University of Virginia in the fall, chosen in part because of the children's research center there which tackles issues similar to the ones Davis took on in her thesis. After she completes law school, she plans to work in the area of child advocacy or the government. "My thesis was an intense, highly significant academic and personal experience. It sparked my interest and opened my eyes to the social and legal issues facing children and families."