EPI Book Release - Unlocking Learning - Iwasaki Library IDEAS - Emerson College Library at Emerson College

Unlocking Learning: International Perspectives on Education in Prison

Tuesday, March 19, 2024: This event celebrated the release of Unlocking Learning: International Perspectives on Education in Prison, a new book co-edited by EPI founder and director Mneesha Gellman. The book features 12 case studies from Europe and Latin America which explore various approaches to education in prison, with special attention paid to how these differing methods and contexts can inform the approaches to education in prison that are taken in the United States.

After an introduction by the Emerson College Vice Provost for Internationalization and Equity, Anthony Pinder, Gellman and her co-editor Justin McDevitt presented an overview of the contents and intentions of the book. Jennifer Coreas, who contributed the chapter on El Salvador, and EPI/Emerson College student Siraaj Abdulnur each spoke about their particular experiences with education in prison. After the presentations, all of the speakers were able to answer a variety of questions from the audience.

Mneesha Gellman, Anthony Pinder, and Siraaj Abdulnur were there in-person to speak to the packed SPC Black Box theater, while Justin McDevitt and Jennifer Coreas were present via a video call.

Related Resources

Unlocking Learning
How can people involved in carceral interventions learn from work in carceral settings outside the United States? This volume addresses this question by gathering international perspectives to the field of education in prison that could inform carceral interventions elsewhere, including in the United States.
Education Behind the Wall by Mneesha Gellman (Editor)
An edited volume reflecting on different aspects of teaching in prison and different points of view. This book seeks to address some of the major issues faced by faculty who are teaching college classes for incarcerated students. Composed of a series of case studies meant to showcase the strengths and challenges of teaching a range of different disciplines in prison, this volume brings together scholars who articulate some of the best practices for teaching their expertise inside alongside honest reflections on the reality of educational implementation in a constrained environment.

Emerson Prison Initiative
EPI provides a rigorous liberal arts education to individuals incarcerated at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk (MCI-Norfolk; prior to 2023 the campus was located at MCI-Concord). EPI acts on the knowledge that college-in-prison programs can interrupt the cycle of incarceration. EPI offers the same courses taught on Emerson’s main campus, taught by Emerson faculty as well as guest faculty from other local colleges, and bearing official Emerson credits. EPI provides a pathway to an Emerson College Bachelor of Arts in Media, Literature, and Culture, a degree that combines Emerson’s unique strengths in media studies, literary studies, and the liberal arts.
Women's College Partnership (University of Notre Dame)
Directed by Justin McDevitt, WCP is a collaboration between Marian University and the University of Notre Dame that offers a liberal arts education at Indiana Women’s Prison. The inaugural WCP class included 16 students. Academic year 2023-2024 will see 40 students attending credit bearing courses towards their associate and bachelor’s degrees. College credits are conferred by Marian University. To date, 15 degrees have been earned by WCP students.
Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison
In 2009, the Bard Prison Initiative established the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison with support from the Open Society Institute to facilitate the establishment of new college-in-prison program-building across the US, calling for those programs to be of the highest academic integrity, ambition, and rigor.
Unlocking Learning, Chapter 1: The Long History of College-In-Prison by Max Kenner
This chapter was highly recommended by co-editor Justin McDevitt as an overview of how college-in-prison programs emerged and developed over the past century in the United States.
Chapter 9. Authorship in Prison: Stories of Identity, Resilience, and Renewal from El Salvador by Jennifer Coreas
Jennifer Coreas, who spoke at the event via a video call, wrote this chapter about how her organization helps incarcerated people in El Salvador explore their identities by becoming authors and learning to tell their own stories.
Mneesha Gellman on the "State of Exception" in El Salvador
Between the writing of the book, including the El Salvador chapter, and its publication, the situation in Salvadoran prisons has changed significantly. Here, Mneesha Gellman describes where things stood as of early March 2024 after the reelection of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele.
ConTextos - El Salvador
Coreas works for ConTextos, an educational non profit organization founded in 2011. They "work towards education, writing, community, and individual and collective healing based on trauma best practices."
Works by ConTextos Participants
ConTextos publishes many of the works by their participants to the web, although laws restricting the depiction of gangs etc. can restrict what they are able to share.
EPI Pilot Program in 2017
Siraaj Abdulnur spoke during the event about the arrival of the first EPI pilot program at MCI-Concord in 2017, and the transformative influence of Professor Gellman's course on Power and Privilege. Here's an Emerson Today article describing that same period from the outside.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
At the event, one attendee quoted Malcolm X, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book." He asked whether Siraaj felt that way about any book in particular, and Siraaj answered that it was in fact the Autobiography of Malcolm X.