College in Prison

Description

EMU professors have been offering courses at WHV voluntarily since 2008. Because of restrictions on federal aid, we have been unable to pay our faculty or offer credit for courses. In July 2023, incarcerated students will be able to receive Pell Grants again, allowing us to offer credit-bearing courses and for faculty and lecturers to teach courses as part of their teaching loads. This seminar brought together representatives from different programs and departments interested in being part of a liberal arts degree program that we expect to include offerings in counseling and social work as well as the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In our initial phase, all students will all have AA degrees from Jackson College, so our curriculum assumed that 60 out of the 120 required degree hours will be transferred in and that students will have already completed the majority of their general education courses.

As part of this seminar, we explored the curriculum of other College in Prison programs, met with people who have taken courses in prison, met with experts on prison education, and collaboratively created a curriculum. Participants were expected to serve as liaisons to their programs and departments to identify courses that can be part of this curriculum.

Details

This seminar was coordinated by Decky Alexander (Director of ENGAGE and Professor of Theater), Beth Currans (Program Administrator of the College in Prison Program and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies), and Barbara Walters (Co-Supervisor of the School of Social Work’s Criminal Justice Field Unit and Professor of Social Work).

These seminars met in-person on the following Thursdays from 3:30-5 PM:

  • February 2, February 16
  • March 9, March 23
  • April 6, April 20

Outside of these meetings, seminar participants completed curricular work pertaining to the course(s) that their departments/programs wish to integrate into this BA program. Participants received a $500 honorarium for their participation in this seminar.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected].