Welcome back! We hope that summer brought you some respite from the hectic pace of the academic year along with opportunities to enjoy the company of friends and family and to bask in the warmth of the sun. The OPEEP community has had a busy summer, but we approach the school year with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
Dr. Thomas is especially excited to be teaching one of the degree cohort’s classes – WGSS 3300.01: Feminist Perspectives on Incarceration this Autumn. This will be her first class with the cohort, and she is looking forward to experiencing the cohort’s intellectual engagement, curiosity, and work ethic that faculty consistently rave about. Speaking of outstanding students, we are delighted to congratulate Ciera for receiving the WGSS Mildred Munday Scholarship for this academic year!! This well-deserved recognition is a testament to Ciera’s commitment to her education and reflective of cohort students’ academic engagement.
Most of the degree cohort had a light course load this summer and only enrolled in Theatre 3814, an improvisation course with Lima campus instructor Professor Margie Anich. Prof. Anich's classes and workshops have made a tremendous impact on OPEEP students and afforded them opportunities to explore creativity, expression, and collaboration. We are so grateful for her continued dedication to bringing the arts to OPEEP’s partner facilities. OPEEP staff had a wonderful time witnessing the students demonstrate these newly developed skills in an interactive end of the term performance. This month you can read more about the impact of the theatre workshop Margie led at Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution (AoCI) in Spring 2026 with support of the Mellon Foundation's Spark Grants administered through the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts.
Although the summer course load was light at ORW, cohort members were far from idle. The summer was filled with both mental and physical stimulation. Students participated in a series of math workshops led by Dr. Lisa Shabel in preparation for her upcoming Spring 2027 PHIL 1500 course. The workshops provided an opportunity to build foundational knowledge and strengthen students’ confidence in math. The students kept physically active as Dr. Lucille Toth and Dr. Brittany Collier-Gibson returned to ORW this summer to offer movement and yoga classes, respectively. We are grateful for the myriad ways they are bringing opportunities for physical expression to ORW.
Students Mel and Roxie, alongside Dr. Theresa Hice-Fromille and Dr. Thomas, gave a presentation to the participants in the AAAS Summer Graduate Student Summer Residency Program. They discussed their experience in learning about Black geographies in Dr. Hice-Fromille’s Spring 2026 class and how the new concepts they studied have influenced their intellectual journeys. Dr. Hice-Fromille and some of the summer residency students were moved to tears by how deeply the cohort students engaged with the coursework and their excitement about sharing that learning with others. Both presentations will be published in OPEEP’s literary magazine, which is currently in construction (stay posted on its progress!).
A Day in the Life column resumes this month with a submission from Destani, a member of the degree cohort. Be sure to read about how she meets the challenges of being an OSU student.
OPEEP began our Mellon Foundation-sponsored extracurricular programming this summer with two presentations at ORW. In July, Ali Alkhalifa, WGSS Education Program Specialist, gave a presentation titled “Is Reality TV Real? Watching Reality Television from a Feminist Film Studies Perspective.” Check out Laura Hennigan’s recap of the event. In August, Dr. Matt Smith, Dean and Director of the Newark campus, presented “Decoding the Marvel Universe.” Both presentations were well attended by OSU students, LAM members, and members of the general population at ORW. Sandy, a cohort member (and our very own Avenger), and Cher penned write ups of Dean Smith’s event.
We look forward to bringing other faculty and staff to ORW and our partner prison facilities London (LoCI) and Lancaster (SCI) to connect with students, share your academic interests and arts practices, and nurture the creativity and curiosity that is foundational to our work. Faculty and staff, we need your support! Please use this form to indicate your interest in participating. Planning for events during the Autumn and Spring semesters is already underway.
Although we are excited about the year ahead, we sadly bid farewell to Hannah Moore, a three-year Graduate Research Assistant for OPEEP, who graduated with her MA in WGSS this summer. Hannah helped coordinate the work of OPEEP’s undergraduate research students, drafted OPEEP’s social media posts, organized our archival research, and so much more. She was also an active and valued member of LAM Collective and will be greatly missed by LAM members and OPEEP staff alike. We are grateful for all that she brought to the OPEEP community and wish her the best in her future endeavors!
We had a wonderful time connecting with everyone at the Student Involvement Fair on Sunday. If you didn’t get a chance to visit our table, you can reach out to us at opeep@osu.edu to join our listserv and stay connected with us on Instagram at @opeep_osu. Staying connected will ensure that you don’t miss announcements about upcoming events, spring 2027 class registration, and OPEEP’s May 2027 Instructor Training.
Finally, we invite you to join us at Parsons North Brewing Company on Thursday, September 10 at 7pm for a Siposium event titled Hair Care Behind Bars during which we’ll discuss the intersection of hair care, incarceration, race, gender, and power. All proceeds from this event will be donated to OPEEP.
We hope that the start of the semester brings opportunities to reconnect with old friends, meet new people, cultivate community, explore new interests, and support OPEEP.
Have a wonderful academic year!
Drs. Tiyi Morris and Mary Thomas