In Literacy Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Women: Sentences and Sponsors, Melanie N. Burdick uses narrative research to elucidate the literacy experiences of formerly incarcerated women and how literacy has affected their lives, both while incarcerated and while transitioning back into society. Using Deborah Brandt’s theory of literacy sponsorship (1998), Burdick explores both the mass incarceration of women and their access to literacy as feminist and social justice issues. While reading and writing in prison is often romanticized through caricatures of incarcerated people who become enlightened and reformed, Burdick targets these romanticized views and criticizes their controlling and harmful effects. This book shines a light on the personal and political ramifications of literacy experiences in women’s lives as they grow up in families and schools, move through the prison system, and transition back into society and higher education, arguing that literacy is politically situated and that transitioning out of prison is a complex process marked by literate acts that are dependent upon constructive literacy sponsorship.

Prison Life Writing is the first full-length study of one of the most controversial genres in American literature. By exploring the complicated relationship between life writing and institutional power, this book reveals the overlooked aesthetic innovations of incarcerated people and the surprising literary roots of the U.S. prison system. Simon Rolston observes that the autobiographical work of incarcerated people is based on a conversion narrative, a story arc that underpins the concept of prison rehabilitation and that sometimes serves the interests of the prison system, rather than those on the inside. Yet many imprisoned people rework the conversion narrative the way they repurpose other objects in prison. Like a radio motor retooled into a tattoo gun, the conversion narrative has been redefined by some authors for subversive purposes, including questioning the ostensible emancipatory role of prison writing, critiquing white supremacy, and broadly reimagining autobiographical discourse. An interdisciplinary work that brings life writing scholarship into conversation with prison studies and law and literature studies, Prison Life Writing theorizes how life writing works in prison, explains literature’s complicated entanglements with institutional power, and demonstrates the political and aesthetic innovations of one of America’s most fascinating literary genres.

In the updated edition of this important volume, the editors and chapter contributors explore how diverse populations of students experience college differently and encounter group-specific barriers to success. Informed by relevant theories, each chapter focuses on engaging a different student population, including low-income students, Students of Color, international students, students with disabilities, religious minority students, student-athletes, part-time students, adult learners, military-connected students, graduate students, and others. New in this third edition is the inclusion of chapters on Indigenous students, student activists, transracial Asian American adoptee students, justice-involved students, student-parents, first-generation students, and undocumented students. The forward-thinking, practical, anti-deficit-oriented strategies offered throughout the book are based on research and the collected professional wisdom of experienced educators and scholars at a range of postsecondary institutions. Current and future faculty members, higher education administrators, and student affairs educators will undoubtedly find this book complete with fresh ideas to reverse troubling engagement trends among various college student populations.

Edited by a diverse group of expert collaborators, the Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning is a landmark volume that brings together cutting-edge research examining learning as entailing inherently cultural processes. Conceptualizing culture as both a set of social practices and connected to learner identities, the chapters synthesize contemporary research in elaborating a new vision of the cultural nature of learning, moving beyond summary to reshape the field toward studies that situate culture in the learning sciences alongside equity of educational processes and outcomes. With the recent increased focus on culture and equity within the educational research community, this volume presents a comprehensive, innovative treatment of what has become one of the field’s most timely and relevant topics.

This groundbreaking edited volume evaluates prisoner reentry using a critical approach to demonstrate how the many issues surrounding reentry do not merely intersect but are in fact reinforcing and interdependent. The number of former incarcerated persons with a felony conviction living in the United States has grown significantly in the last decade, reaching into the millions. When men and women are released from prison, their journey encompasses a range of challenges that are unique to each individual, including physical and mental illnesses, substance abuse, gender identity, complicated family dynamics, the denial of rights, and the inability to voice their experiences about returning home. Although scholars focus on the obstacles former prisoners encounter and how to reduce recidivism rates, the main challenge of prisoner reentry is how multiple interdependent issues overlap in complex ways. By examining prisoner reentry from various critical perspectives, this volume depicts how the carceral continuum, from incarceration to reentry, negatively impacts individuals, families, and communities; how the criminal justice system extends different forms of social control that break social networks; and how the shifting nature of prisoner reentry has created new and complicated obstacles to those affected by the criminal justice system. This volume explores these realities with respect to a range of social, community, political, and policy issues that former incarcerated persons must navigate to successfully reenter society. A springboard for future critical research and policy discussions, this book will be of interest to U.S. and international researchers and practitioners interested in the topic of prisoner reentry, as well as graduate and upper-level undergraduate students concerned with contemporary issues in corrections, community-based corrections, critical issues in criminal justice, criminal justice policies, and reentry.

This sourcebook introduces the basic concept of college in prison, describes programs that exist across the country today, and considers the challenges and opportunities facing community college educators who are interested in the growing movement to reintroduce postsecondary education to America’s prisons. Not only do the authors write from their personal experience as educators, they also expound on many issues that arise in prison teaching, including: the clash between college assumptions and prison rules, the complete absence of public funding for college in prison, the racial dimension of mass incarceration, and insights on key issues facing college educators in the prison context today. This is the 170th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

A journey into the experiences of incarcerated women in rural areas, revealing how location can reinforce gendered violence Incarceration is all too often depicted as an urban problem, a male problem, a problem that disproportionately affects people of color. This book, however, takes readers to the heart of the struggles of the outlaw women of the rural West, considering how poverty and gendered violence overlap to keep women literally and figuratively imprisoned. Outlaw Women examines the forces that shape women’s experiences of incarceration and release from prison in the remote, predominantly white communities that many Americans still think of as “the Western frontier.” Drawing on dozens of interviews with women in the state of Wyoming who were incarcerated or on parole, the authors provide an in-depth examination of women’s perceptions of their lives before, during, and after imprisonment. Considering cultural mores specific to the rural West, the authors identify the forces that consistently trap women in cycles of crime and violence in these regions: felony-related discrimination, the geographic isolation that traps women in abusive relationships, and cultural stigmas surrounding addiction, poverty, and precarious interpersonal relationships. Following incarceration, women in these areas face additional, region-specific obstacles as they attempt to reintegrate into society, including limited social services, significant gender wage gaps, and even severe weather conditions that restrict travel. The book ultimately concludes with new, evidence-based recommendations for addressing the challenges these women face.

In this monograph, the ethical implications of engaging in research with vulnerable populations is explored and demonstrates how Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) both enhances the research while addressing these ethical complexities. Although CBPR encompasses different levels of community engagement, in general, the participants, or co-researchers, are involved in the formulation of the research questions and methodologies because they are central to the conversation about what should be researched and how. Participants are directly involved in formulating the study problems and finding solutions, and usually the goal is to create social change that can be applied to and potentially transform the community. Learning with Women in Jail: Creating Community Based Participatory Research documents the research process to better understand the causes for incarceration and recidivism.The study used a (CBPR) framework so that the people who had directly experienced incarceration would lead the research as much as possible, from framing the research questions and methodologies to data capture and analysis. ​

Feminist Cyberspaces: Pedagogies in Transition is a collection of essays exploring the ways in which new media technologies are being used in the feminist “classroom.” The collection has been structured to reflect the multifaceted nature of education today. Learning takes place on a personal level through independent study and social media; it takes place at a local level in our classrooms and lecture halls, but it is also increasingly taking place on a global scale as new technologies foster international collaboration between individuals and organizations. In addition, there is a growing acceptance of learning in the collaborative 3D classrooms of virtual worlds. These educational spaces are not mutually exclusive, as the contributions to this volume make clear. The anthology explores how technology is being used in antiviolence teaching, art education, HIV and AIDS education, and other specialized topics, but it also gives many examples of innovations in teaching introductory courses. The technology used ranges from the implementation of course management systems for large university classes to the use of digital storytelling in small groups outside the university. It also explores technology for removing barriers to people with disabilities in both traditional and online classrooms. The collection is not a “how to” book, but it does use practical experience as a basis for feminist theorizing of the classroom. All of the essays look at the use of new technology in the light of feminist pedagogy, seeking new ways to foster provocative, creative and non-hierarchical learning that transcends the physical boundaries of the university.

This Handbook brings together the voices of a range of contributors interested in the many varied experiences of women in criminal justice systems, and who are seeking to challenge the status quo. Although there is increasing literature and research on gender, and certain aspects of the criminal justice system (often Western focused), there is a significant gap in the form of a Handbook that brings together these important gendered conversations. This essential book explores research and theory on how women are perceived, handled, and experience criminal justice within and across different jurisdictions, with particular consideration of gendered and disparate treatment of women as law-breakers. There is also consideration of women’s experiences through an intersectional lens, including race and class, as well as feminist scholarship and activism. The Handbook contains 47 unique chapters with nine overarching themes (Lessons from history and theory; Routes into the criminal justice system; Intersectionality; Sentencing and the courts and community punishments; Specific offences; Incarcerated women’s experiences; Mothers and families; Rehabilitation and reintegration; Practitioner relationships), and each theme includes contributions from different countries as well as the experiences of contributors from different stages in their own journey. International and interdisciplinary in scope, this Handbook is essential reading for scholars and students of criminology, sociology, social policy, social work, and law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, such as social workers, probation officers, prison officers, and policy makers.