Today@Sam Article

Swiss CJ Professor Returns to SHSU After 17 Years

April 15, 2024
SHSU Media Contact: Campbell Atkins

Seventeen years after studying at Sam Houston State University as part of a master’s exchange program, Swiss criminal justice professor Nora Markwalder returned to Huntsville for her sabbatical during the spring semester. Her story highlights the importance of global understanding in an ever-changing field as well as the university’s commitment to fostering international relations.

“I have always encouraged people to travel abroad and participate in an exchange semester or year if they can,” Markwalder said. “For me, it is very important to compare other countries’ systems and identify the differences. It enlarges your vision of the social phenomenon of crime.”

While Markwalder pursued her Master of Law in Criminal Justice at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland in 2005, SHSU Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology Jurg Gerber was teaching a one-week intensive seminar in white collar crime at the Swiss university. Markwalder happened to be a student in this course.

“Thanks to Dr. Gerber, my university had an exchange agreement with SHSU,” Markwalder said. “I always wanted to participate in an exchange year during my studies and decided to go to Sam since I already had a relationship with him. I also thought it would be more interesting to go to Texas than New York or California, as other colleagues of mine did, because I wanted to have an authentic American feel.”

Gerber, who is also from Switzerland, has taught at SHSU since 1990. Throughout his tenure, he has been instrumental in establishing and growing the university’s global reach. He serves as director of International Initiatives for the College of Criminal Justice and was director of International Programs for the entire university from 2001-05. He has also held a number of administrative roles, including chair of the Department of Security Studies (2014-16), associate dean for Academic Administration (1998-2000), assistant dean for Graduate Programs (1997-98) and assistant dean for Undergraduate Programs (1994-97).

“I am a firm believer in the idea that in order to understand your own system well, you have to understand other systems,” Gerber said. “There are both academic and professional exchanges going on in our criminal justice program at the same time and there is a lot of support for the idea that they can learn from us and we can learn from them.”

Gerber served as Markwalder’s unofficial adviser during her first stint at SHSU as a student. The two kept in touch over the years and reconnected at conferences for the American Society of Criminology as well as Gerber’s summer stints in Switzerland.

Since finishing her master’s at Sam during the 2006-07 academic year, Markwalder completed her Doctor of Laws degree at the University of Zurich in 2012 and was admitted to the Zurich Bar in 2014. After working as a defense attorney, she accepted an assistant professorship at the University of St. Gallen. She has since been promoted to a full-time professor at St. Gallen and chiefly focuses on criminal law and procedures, white collar crime and criminology.

“When I told Dr. Gerber that I would have my sabbatical and wanted to go back to the U.S., he suggested I come back to SHSU,” Markwalder said. “I thought it would be a great idea because I loved it here and wanted to see how everything changed.”

Her unique perspective offers insight into how much the campus, and Huntsville as a whole, has transformed in 17 years.

“I hardly recognized it; it has grown immensely,” Markwalder said. “But I am very happy and thankful that I could come back for another great experience.”

During her sabbatical semester, Markwalder has mainly focused on updating her mentor’s German-language textbook, which focuses on the generalities of crime and requires heavy research. She has also spent the time focusing on other projects, such as updating Swiss homicide databases and researching future articles, including a special issue for the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.

Markwalder will return to Switzerland in July to resume her role at the University of St.Gallen.

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