The Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies helped facilitate research opportunities for faculty and graduate students by providing resources on topics including judicial decision-making, capital trials, jury decision-making and related areas. Center staff also provided grant-writing support to faculty and researchers. In addition to supporting justice studies research, the Grant Sawyer Center actively sought speaking engagements and public events to increase campus awareness of justice studies and judicial education.
The Center facilitated research by fostering an interdisciplinary community of scholars focused on the formal and informal dimensions of social justice, assisting in the development of proposals for externally funded research on justice-related topics, and providing opportunities for students across a variety of academic programs to conduct database research for theses and dissertations addressing justice issues. The Center was also committed to advancing justice research within global contexts.
July 2026 Update: The College of Liberal Arts has been unable to identify a director to lead the Grant Sawyer Center. As a result, we are reaching out to the Center's supporters and donors to inform them that the Center will be placed on hiatus. If, in the future, there is faculty interest in reviving the Center and securing external resources to complement the support provided by the College of Liberal Arts and establish a more sustainable operating budget, we would welcome the opportunity to revisit reopening the Center.