Minding Justice: Mental Health and Criminal Law

WDB Lecture Series

Dr. Kate Bonnici

Minding Justice: Mental Health and Criminal Law
Wednesday February 11, 2026
11:30AM Surfboard Room | In Partnership with Pepperdine Libraries
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Dr. Kate Bolton Bonnici is an assistant professor of English at Pepperdine University, where she directs the Social Action and Justice Colloquium. Dr. Bonnici is an interdisciplinary scholar who recently published A True & Just Record on the English witch trials. Her debut poetry collection, Night Burial, won the 2020 Colorado Prize for Poetry, and a new hybrid book is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press (University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point).

Dr. Bonnici earned her JD at New York University and practiced law in Alabama and in California. She earned an MFA in poetry from the University of California, Riverside, and a PhD in English from the University of California, Los Angeles.

In “Minding Justice: Mental Health and Criminal Law,” Dr. Bonnici incorporates insights from her work in rhetorics, early modern studies, and criminal defense to introduce Mental Health in Criminal Justice: A Practical Guide for Legal and Clinical Professionals, a book she is co-editing with Dr. Diomaris Safi (UCLA) and that will be published by the American Bar Association. Mental Health in Criminal Justice brings together experts in forensic psychology, neuropsychology, and law. The book provides crucial, accessible resources to improve representation of individuals with mental health concerns who are involved in the criminal legal system. The result will be more just outcomes.