| Susette M. Talarico | |
| Birth Date: | May 10, 1946 |
| Birth Place: | Danbury, Connecticut |
| Death Date: | May 23, 2007 |
| Nationality: | American |
Susette M. Talarico (May 10, 1946 – May 23, 2007) was an American political scientist and legal scholar. She specialized in the study of judicial politics and criminal justice. Talarico was a Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia from 1977 until her retirement in 2006. There she held a variety of professorships, including being the Albert Berry Saye Professor of American Government and Constitutional Law and a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs.
Talarico was born on May 10, 1946, in Danbury, Connecticut.[1] After graduating from high school, Talarico joined the Sisters of Mercy, and earned her bachelor's degree at the Diocesan Sisters College.[1] After six years in the Sisters of Mercy, Talarico left and attended graduate school at the University of Connecticut, where she obtained a master's degree followed by a PhD in 1976.[1] She then began teaching at Saint Michael's College, before moving to the University of Georgia in 1977.[1] She remained there until her retirement in 2006.[1] At the University of Georgia she was named the Albert Berry Saye Professor of American Government and Constitutional Law, as well as a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs.[1] She was a Charter Member of the Teaching Academy there, twice won the Josiah Meigs Award for excellence in instruction,[2] held a three-year appointment as the General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professor at the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and was a Danforth Teaching Fellow for six years.[1] For several years, Talarico was the only woman with tenure in the University of Georgia Department of Political Science.[1]
Talarico's research focused on judicial politics and the study of criminal justice.[1] For example, her 1987 book The social contexts of criminal sentencing with Martha A. Myers was one of the first studies of the social contexts of criminal sentences,[3] and in 1980 she edited a compendium of research methods and practices in criminal justice research, called Criminal justice research: Approaches, problems, and policy.[4] For six years, Talarico was the editor-in-chief of the Justice System Journal.[1]
After Talarico's death, an annual Talarico Lecture at the University of Georgia was funded in her honor.[5] [6] The Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia also endowed the Susette M. Talarico Public Service Leadership Award.[7]