97. It Feels Like Freedom: Philosophy and Literature Behind Bars

The Philosophy and Literature Circle provides learning opportunities for scholars incarcerated in prisons and jails in South-Central Texas to engage with and create works of literature and philosophy. The program draws on the strengths of humanistic inquiry and engagement to redress the isolation and exclusion central to U.S. punishment cultures. The mission of the Circle is to cultivate collaborative learning communities so that people in prison and beyond can thrive and build trust across divides. The vision of the Circle is to foster a world filled with thriving communities of trust and accountability that embody commitments to justice, peace, and freedom. Program content and structure seek to bring such a world about through critical, compassionate, and creative engagement with texts, ourselves, one another, and our worlds.Our speaker, Judith Norman, has been engaged with community organizing for 20 years. She has worked with movements for economic justice, anti-militarization, educational justice, and the liberation of Palestine as a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. In 2020 she helped start the Philosophy and Literature Circle at the Torres Unit, a learning circle that brings undergraduate students together with incarcerated scholars to read, write, and discuss works of philosophy and literature.Judith is a Murchison Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Trinity University. Her research focuses on the history of philosophy, and German philosophy in particular, and she has published numerous articles on the subject. She has translated the works of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and teaches classes in the history of philosophy as well as indigenous philosophy and the philosophy of art.To make a donation to the Classroom on the Inside program (UTSA): https://giving.utsa.edu/thecircle To learn more, go to: https://www.trinity.edu/news/classroom-insideTo read Mary Oliver's Wild Geese: https://www.empoweredstl.org/courageinactionblog/k8yuhtr76c6s58w3368kamhw0mxit2The Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network and the words we use: https://ficgn.org/our-pledge