Community Engaged Learning

Posts Tagged ‘prison education’

Wednesday, May 7th, 2025

Grappling with the contradictions: Ninah Jackson’s multifaceted engagement with prison education

Ninah Jackson ’25 has been deeply involved in prison education since taking an Inside-Out class at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Coal Township in the fall of 2023. Since the course, Jackson has gone on to co-organize the Ella Baker-Kwame Ture Prison Study Group and conduct an honors thesis on the ideological, political, and intellectual dimensions of prison education.  Inside-Out Course Jackson first heard about Inside-Out through word of mouth, through Endia Scales ’24, who asked Jackson to join Professor Vanessa Massaro’s Cultural Geography course because “she didn’t want to be the only Black student in the class.” Jackson was unsure […]

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Posted by on May 7, 2025

Thursday, April 24th, 2025

“Where Education Crosses Walls”: Professor Tom Solomon on the Transformative Power of the Inside-Out Classroom

When Professor Tom Solomon first learned about the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, he didn’t approach it with a plan. He approached it with possibility. It was a conversation with Professor Carolynn Davis, a Bucknell faculty member deeply involved in prison education, that first sparked his interest. She held an information session for faculty, and the idea of teaching inside a prison stood out. The concept felt important, even urgent. It didn’t take long for that curiosity to deepen. A phone call with Lori Pompa, the program’s founder at Temple University, helped clarify what was at stake. In just thirty minutes, […]

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Posted by on April 24, 2025

Monday, September 16th, 2024

Keith Lamar to perform from incarceration October 3, 2024

For more information on “Freedom First” and the performer, Keith Lamar, a poet on death row, who will perform via bluetooth speaker during the concert. here is a NYT piece that explains both very well: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/arts/music/keith-lamar-death-row-freedom-first.html

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Posted by on September 16, 2024

Sunday, April 28th, 2024

Why? A Reflection on Inside-Out

Written by Amira Faden This past semester, I have had the honor of taking a poetry class through the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. The course took place in a local prison: 8 of the students came from Bucknell (“outside students”) and 8 of the students were incarcerated in the local prison (“inside students”). We met one afternoon each week within the prison for a series of discussions, writing exercises and sharing sessions on the subject of reading and writing poetry. Together, we established a foundation of trust and connection that allowed us to learn from each other. Two conversations come […]

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Posted by on April 28, 2024

Wednesday, April 5th, 2023

Academic Engagement at SCI Coal Township: Physics Professor Tom Solomon

Dr. Tom Solomon, Presidential Professor of Physics, is currently teaching UNIV 232, Science Technology and Society, a Community-Engaged Learning course that explores the effects science and those that study it have on society. What makes this course so special is that it is an Inside-Out course, which means that the course is taught in a correctional facility. Solomon travels to the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Coal Township with 12 Bucknell students, here referred to as outside students, to teach them and 12 incarcerated students, referred to as inside students. As of this semester, the inside students will receive course […]

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Posted by on April 5, 2023

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