Our Partakers Empowerment Program facilitators, Natalia Paley Whitman, Ben Helzner, Liz Peterson, Ella Subramanian, and Julia Warheit, during their training for the Spring 2023 PEP cohort. Read on to learn more about the training and other BEJI activities!
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The BEJI vision for 2023 draws from the successes of 2022. We now have the resources, energy, and vision to keep growing! Last year, our fundraising and public recognition helped us renew collaborations and create new educational programs.
Our goal is to give everyone at Brandeis an opportunity to get involved in BEJI. We look forward to working with the new student-led group, the Carceral Awareness, Reform, and Education Club (C.A.R.E.), to expand our on-campus impact. We plan to elevate discussions of carceral justice by inviting more guest speakers and hosting events with leaders in the field.
We plan to develop training for faculty and graduate students teaching in carceral spaces and expand research opportunities for students and faculty committed to investigating the consequences of mass incarceration. We look forward to working with two new post-doctoral fellows, whose work is directly related to mass incarceration.
We will continue to tell the story of our impact and to connect with a network of people who are passionate about education as a way to empower and build bridges for incarceration-impacted people. We look forward to facilitating this growing conversation about Brandeis’ crucial role in carceral justice work.
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ENG 121B: Literature in the Age of Mass Incarceration | |
Professor David Sherman, a co-founder of BEJI, learned about creative expression in carceral spaces while teaching incarcerated students at the Suffolk County House of Correction, Nashua Street Jail, and a local DYS detention center. Based on his experiences, he decided to offer ENG 121B: Literature in the Age of Mass Incarceration.
The course aims to use creative and theoretical writing to evaluate mass incarceration and the racialized and discriminatory nature of the criminal justice system, with a specific focus on women and LGBTQ+ people in carceral systems. The class offers multiple opportunities to students to learn more about mass incarceration and the various issues plaguing the system through a series of novels and films, and with assignments that encourage students to analyze the system through theory and creativity.
Check out our Arts & Culture section below to see what ENG 121B students read recently!
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Follow us on Instagram and Twitter (@Brandeis_EJI), and check out our website! | | |
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From our co-founder, Professor Rosalind Kabrhel:
2022 was a year of reflection and growth for BEJI. We are fortunate to have such a dedicated group of students who helped us envision the broader impact of our work and BEJI’s role on campus and in the community.
We were able to connect with Brandeis alumni who are leaders in the field of carceral justice, and who care deeply about our mission. Special thanks go out to Elizabeth Alexander ‘67, Howard Scher ‘67, and Rachel Hernandez '92 for their support in 2022 and to the Brandeis National Committee chapters in Phoenix and Tuscan, AZ for hosting Professor Kabrhel for a BEJI presentation in January. BEJI was also the recipient of grant funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which will help sustain our reentry programming for the next two years.
Finally, we enjoyed connecting with our formerly incarcerated students in new ways, with social engagements, on-campus discussions, and new partnerships. Here is a broader picture of BEJI's 2022 impact:
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Our First PEP Training
The Partakers Empowerment Program began its seventh cohort this semester! In preparation, our Brandeis graduate and undergraduate facilitators participated in a training session to get to know each other, discuss the reentry process, learn more about PEP and Partakers, and explore pedagogical practices.
Professor Rachel Kramer-Theodorou, an education faculty leader, hosted a workshop for PEP facilitators on best practices for teaching. Using a Starbucks order as an example, Professor Kramer-Theodorou encouraged the team to investigate the sociocultural contexts of learning goals and provided strategies for facilitators to reach their target learning goals and audience.
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Building and Fostering Communities with Liz Peterson
Liz Peterson, a returning Partakers Empowerment Program facilitator, reflects on her experiences with PEP, how she approaches a new cohort, and what sets PEP apart from her previous work.
Read more!
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Campus & Community Events | | |
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March 21 from 7 to 8:30 PM via Zoom
A panel of women directly affected by incarceration and now building community-based alternatives will discuss their experiences, and the campaign to stop the building of a new women’s prison in Massachusetts.
Panelists include two of our PEP alumni, Angie Jefferson, who was incarcerated for 31 years, and her daughter, Shanita Jefferson, who helped her mother earn release and continues to work for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women with New Beginnings Reentry Services. Joining them is Families for Justice as Healing (FJAH) and The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls organizer Sashi James, who will talk about her work to reimagine and build community beyond incarceration.
There will also be a discussion on how to get involved with the campaign to place a moratorium on prison construction in Massachusetts for the next five years.
Register here!
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March 23 from 7 to 9 PM Boston, MA
Join the Emerson Prison Initiative for an evening of poetry with Reginald Dwayne Betts as he reads from his critically acclaimed book, Felon. With his unparalleled ability to weave together complex ideas with captivating imagery, Betts offers a profound exploration of the deeply interconnected themes of incarceration, race, and justice — and the profound impact on the lives of those caught up in it.
Register here!
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March 24 from 9 AM to 5 PM Boston, MA
THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS TODAY, MARCH 17!
This conference will look at the social and economic benefits of providing college in prison in Massachusetts and nationally. Hear from leading analysts and policy-makers alongside college-in-prison alumni, and keynote speaker Reginald Dwayne Betts on how college-in-prison is part of a new approach to public safety and social justice at the same time. Panelists also include our PEP alumni, David Baxter, Ahmad Bright, Mac Hudson, and John Yang!
The event will be live-streamed for those who cannot attend. When registering, choose the "Livestream" option. Please reach out to BEJI if you want to join some of our staff/students who will be in attendance.
Register here!
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C.A.R.E. Club Movie Night
The up-and-coming Carceral Awareness, Reform, and Education Club will be hosting a movie night on March 28 at 7:30 PM in the Skyline Multipurpose Room.
Follow @BrandeisCAREClub on Instagram for updates on this event and more!
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Community Partner Visit from The National Council for Incarcerated Women & Girls
Sashi James, Director of Reimagining Communities at The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, visited Professor Dave Sherman's ENG 121B: Literature in the Age of Mass Incarceration course in February. James shared the mission and vision of the organization and discussed ways to reimagine community work.
The National Council aims to end the incarceration of women and girls by shifting the focus from reimagining prisons to reimagining communities. Some of the ways the organization does this are through universal basic income for women emerging from incarceration, forming a community crisis response team, and building freight farms.
Brandeis students were able to ask questions about the organization and to make connections to the course material. Natalia Paley Whitman, a Brandeis undergraduate majoring in Anthropology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality, had this to say about the visit: "Hearing Sashi speak on the impact of The National Council’s micro-organizing and community initiatives was a powerful reminder that the learning we do in the classroom only goes as far as our determination to step into the community and take risks. Listening to her speak gave me goosebumps. Her team is implementing programs that so many have decided aren’t possible and writing the roadmap for how it’s done - and it’s working."
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Education Behind the Wall, edited by Associate Professor Mneesha Gellman, director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, features scholarship and essays discussing college-in-prison programs. The book is interested in changing the lives of those teaching, or seeking to teach, in prison education programs by sharing knowledge and thinking through approaches to higher education in prison work.
Published by Brandeis University Press, this collection is for anyone and everyone interested in higher education in prison and carceral education contexts.
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Recently, students of Professor Sherman's Literature in the Age of Mass Incarceration course read sections from When the Smoke Cleared.
After the 1971 uprising at Attica, author Celes Tisdale, a poet and Buffalo State College professor, began leading poetry workshops with those incarcerated at Attica. When the Smoke Cleared contains the poems written by Tisdale's students at Attica, as well as Tisdale's poems and journal entries from his time teaching, and displays the students' lives, desires, and struggles as Black men incarcerated in a prison monitored by white guards and administrators.
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