Greetings and welcome to the 2024-25 academic year! We had a wonderfully busy summer and are happy to take a moment to reflect on last year’s activities and share some of our projects for the upcoming year.
In 2023-24, OPEEP faculty taught classes at four of the five prison facilities where we work – Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution (AOCI) in Lima, London Correctional Institution (LoCI) in London, Richland Correctional Institution (RiCI) in Mansfield, and Southeastern Correctional Institution (SCI) in Lancaster. Dr. Terrance Hinton’s Corrections class at LoCI and Dr. Morris’ Civil Rights and Black Power Movements class at SCI were profiled by NBC and Spectrum News, respectively, highlighting the wonderful opportunity our students have to build intellectual communities with folks they would not otherwise meet. Each semester we are reaching new incarcerated and campus students and sharing social justice-based pedagogies with the hopes of creating engaged citizens who will be empowered to advocate for social change. Information on spring 2025 classes will be available on our website in September.
Congratulations to Babette Cieskowski, who was promoted from OPEEP Program Coordinator to Education Program Senior Specialist in June! In this capacity, she has been working tirelessly to support the implementation of OPEEP’s embedded degree program at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. And we are thrilled to announce the enrollment of the inaugural cohort of our bachelor’s degree in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at ORW!! (See Babette’s article in this newsletter for all the exciting details.)
As we embark upon this journey of offering the first prison-based, four-year liberal studies degree in an Ohio prison, we must acknowledge the university support that has been instrumental to making this undertaking possible - Dr. Wendy Smooth, Senior Vice-Provost for Academic Excellence; Dr. Randy Smith, Vice-Provost for Academic Programs; Dr. James Orr, Vice-Provost of Strategic Enrollment Management; Julee Conrad, Beth Wiser, and Turgeon Hunter in the Office of Admissions; Ryan Hunt, Registrar; Stephanie Swiger and Kendra Bauman in the Office of Legal Affairs; Travis Ritter, Kim Hopkins, Valerie Rake, Mike Groeniger, and Lisa Rice in the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation; Stephanie Swigger and Kendra Bauman in the Office of Legal Affairs; Vicki Miller and staff in the Office of Financial Aid; the Arts and Sciences curriculum and GE leaders and staff including Dr. Andrew Martin and Dr. Meg Daly; and WGSS Chair, Dr. Mytheli Sreenivas. OPEEP’s degree program would not have been possible without their continued support, leadership, and commitment. We also thank the leadership at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, especially Warden Erin Maldonado and Deputy Warden for Special Services, Danielle Lyles, for welcoming Ohio State to Marysville.
Our Learning Communities – Liberation at the Margins (LAM) Collective at ORW and Philosophy for Humans (P4H) at SCI – meet bi-monthly and have continued to flourish. P4H published its first zine and is currently working on collaborative projects that center abolition, freedom dreaming, and storytelling for social justice.
Last year, LAM had a jammed packed schedule with visits by Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley, filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu, Dr. Treva Lindsey, Dr. Bettina Love, and Dr. Cheryl Hicks. We had unforgettable conversations with these prominent scholars and creators about how Black feminisms, abolition, and freedom dreaming shape their lives and works. LAM members’ academic development was further enhanced by opportunities to present virtually at the National Women’s Studies Association annual conference and a Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme Digital Dialogues event with a campus audience about how their understandings of Black feminism, gained through participating in the Collective, has transformed their lives and leadership. We are continuing this work as we plan for future presentations and publications.
LAM members also co-facilitated one day of OPEEP’s instructor training in May. During this three-day training, we prepared twelve new faculty from the Columbus and Newark campuses to teach OPEEP classes. The new OPEEP instructors, representing nine disciplines and three colleges, are: Dr. DeAnza Cook, Jill Davis, Dr. Jessica Delgado, Dr. Simone Drake, Dr. Irvin Gonzalez, Dr. Therese Hice-Fromille, Dr. Treva Lindsey, Dr. fabian romero, Dr. Victor St. John, Dr. Viet Trinh, Dr. Shavange Scott, and Dr. Christine Warner. We welcome them to the OPEEP community and look forward to the exciting ways they will advance OPEEP’s educational and social justice mission inside and outside of the classroom. Look for their profiles in future newsletters and on our website.
We are incredibly proud of and grateful for the hardworking team of OPEEP staff, who have worked with us to build OPEEP from the ground up. And the advisors who support this work. We bid farewell to Advisory Council members Seyan Coco, Alia Dietsch, Isabella Guinigundo, Muheeb Hijazeen, and Amy Shuster, who served as thoughtful ambassadors and collaborators. We welcome new council members, Heather Jarvis, Rochelle Sparks, Kamisha Thomas, and Aimee Wissman. Find out all about them on our website.
We look forward to an increase in campus programming in the year ahead. Our first of three events is, “Imagine New Worlds: Using the Freedom Dreaming Pedagogy Tool.” The workshop introduces and models the Freedom Dreaming Tool developed in alignment with last year’s Global Arts & Humanities Discovery Theme. This event will be held at the FREE Center’s semester launch at Thompson Library, 11th floor, on August 29 from 3:00-5:00PM (RSVP here).
Our second event is a reentry simulation in partnership with the Petey Greene Program on September 9 from 2:00-4:00PM in the MLK Lounge in the Hale Black Cultural Center. The simulation aims to provide participants with a firsthand experience of life after incarceration, shedding light on the associated challenges and barriers. You can find more details about the event and registration information here on our website.
Finally, also in collaboration with Petey Green, we are hosting a pedagogy workshop called, “Trauma-Informed Practices for Teaching in Carceral Spaces,” on September 10. This will be a hybrid event, in person at the Hale Center and over zoom. Please RSPV here and keep an eye on our website for more information on time. Please note that this is a workshop intended for instructional faculty and staff, including graduate instructors and post-docs.
We look forward to having more students take our classes, having more faculty join the ranks of OPEEP instructors, and having you join us in expanding our Black feminist, abolitionist, social justice educational project.
Drs. Tiyi Morris & Mary Thomas
