HWS News
3 September 2025 • Research Changing the Perception
Leia Brunt ’26 is conducting a feasibility study to explore ways to engage the HWS community with crime survivors.
When Leia Brunt ’26 took “Penology” with Professor of Sociology James Sutton, she was inspired to learn the details about victims’ and survivors’ lives often left out of crime statistics. Wanting to further that interest, Brunt worked with Sutton over the summer and created a feasibility study to engage Hobart and William Smith and the broader community with a narrative of their lives.
As part of the study, Brunt interviewed 11 people, ranging from victims and survivors of violence, to HWS sociology alumni Meredith Steinfeldht '20 and Samantha Ruthazer '18, who completed honor's projects while on campus, to stakeholders such as Vice President and General Counsel Lou Guard ’07, Associate Vice President of Campus Safety Marty Corbett and Title IX Coordinator Amanda Jantzi '06. Through these conversations, she explored the possibility of creating a victim and survivor writing archive and what form it might take. Key considerations included whether HWS should be institutionally associated, how liability might factor in, whether the archive should be focused on victims and survivors from the on or off campus communities (or both), and how accessible the archive would be to broader audiences. To address these concerns, Brunt proposed three potential formats: a printed book housed on campus, a website or a hybrid of both—each designed to be updated with future stories.
She also focused on how to make this resource known outside of HWS.
“This project has allowed me to explore my independence as a student and to become a more critical thinker,” says Brunt, a writing and rhetoric and sociology double major who plans for a career in public policy or advocacy. “When I graduate, this will be my life of consequence at HWS.”
Brunt will present the study during Homecoming and Family Weekend, Oct. 3-5. She then plans to continue working on this project in the spring through an independent study and hopes to present her work at a professional criminal justice conference.
Brunt was excited by the collaboration from HWS faculty and staff.
“Seeing everyone’s support on this project made me realize this is something that can empower people and serve as a public awareness standpoint,” says Brunt.
Sutton says that this type of work inspired him to join HWS in 2012. “We have an undergraduate student that has an opportunity to do something here that has never been done before.”
Top: In Stern Hall, Leia Brunt ’26 and Professor of Sociology Jim Sutton discuss Brunt’s summer research project creating a secure database of accounts from victims and survivors of crime.
