Demonstrating the Transformative Power of Higher Education for Incarcerated and Previously Incarcerated Students in Pennsylvania

Demonstrating the Transformative Power of Higher Education for Incarcerated and Previously Incarcerated Students in Pennsylvania

Project Team
Ellen Skirvin, Assistant Teaching Professor, English

Project Funding
Level 3 – Joint projects in Arts, Humanities, and Social and Behavioral Sciences

Higher education has the potential to transform our systems of incarceration and provide liberatory opportunities to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students. This grant application proposes to use art, policy research, and narrative to communicate the importance of higher educational opportunities inside prisons and jails to people in Pennsylvania, including Penn State community members and Pennsylvania lawmakers. Through integrating Art and Design, Social Sciences, and the Humanities, we hope to educate and motivate these audiences to remove the barriers to education and artistic expression for currently and formerly incarcerated students.