Mass incarceration in the United States represents an unprecedented political and humanitarian crisis. Existing research shows that college-in-prison programs reduce in-facility violence and recidivism rates, providing a unique space for students to build meaningful lives during and after the time of their incarceration. We are committed to staging a conference that will provide a spark for education justice efforts in colleges and universities throughout the Allegheny region and the United States.

Pitt faculty and student research conducted for and as a result of the conference will both require and foment collaboration among researchers in traditionally humanist disciplines, including Composition, Literature, and Philosophy; researchers who transcend humanistic and social science approaches in fields including sociology, criminology, education, business, political science, women’s and gender studies, and the law; and interdisciplinary scholars of math and science pedagogy. One specific goal of this year’s conference is to assist in the formation of the first formal national association of U.S. college-in-prison programs: an association that will be unusual in its assumptive merger of research, theoretical innovation, and practice.

This event is also sponsored by the Ford Foundation, the English department at Pitt, the English department at West Virginia University, the Katz Graduate School of Business, and West Virginia Eberly College. For more information, go to www.nchep2015.com or contact Cory Holding at cholding@pitt.edu.

Images from the event: