OPEEP is looking forward to facilitating four courses across three different prison facilities in the upcoming Autumn 2023 semester! For further details on each course offering, including course descriptions, prison locations, and class times, please read below.
Ready to apply for an Autumn 2023 OPEEP course? Please complete this online application and the course instructor will reach out shortly with more information! For more detailed instructions on the OPEEP application and enrollment process, please visit our Student Resources page.
Courses at the Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW) in Marysville:
Earth Sciences 1110S: History of Life on Earth - Global Change in the Biosphere with Newark Campus Professor Jill Leonard-Pingel (leonard-pingel.1@osu.edu), Mondays 12:30-3:15pm
This course explores the history of life on Earth, from its earliest beginnings over 3 billion years ago to the evolution of humans and their modification of the current environment. The course will explore how scientists use the scientific method to reconstruct past environments and learn about life in the past and students will practice developing these skills. We will discuss how organisms have both impacted their physical environment and how they have evolved and adapted to changing environments. Finally, we will critically evaluate the place of humans in the history of life, their impacts on Earth’s biosphere, and how a knowledge of Earth’s history can provide context for addressing current environmental crises.
Sociology 2463: Social Inequality with Newark Campus Professor Rachel Schneider (schneider.831@osu.edu), Mondays 12:30-3:15pm
In this course you will learn about social inequality in American society and how it is related to the unequal distribution of resources like education, jobs, money, and social status. We begin the course by examining the nature of privileged systems and how those in power stay in power, along with an exploration of belief systems and how social inequalities impact life chances. We will look at how social inequalities impact socialization practices in the home and school systems. We will also uncover the reality of poverty by learning about the lived experiences of those living in extreme poverty. Finally, we will investigate how social inequality influences health outcomes, reproductive justice, the chances of ending up in the criminal justice system, and corporate power and the low wage worker.
GEL Social Science: Human, Natural and Economic Resources; GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
Course at Southeastern Correctional Institution (SCI) in Lancaster:
Philosophy 3420: Philosophical Perspectives on Issues of Gender with Columbus Campus Professor Amy Shuster (shuster.67@osu.edu), Wednesdays 5:30-8:15pm
“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman”—or so thought Simone de Beauvoir in 1949. This groundbreaking statement is part of an on-going conversation about how and whether gender is related to biological sex, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, and nation. What does it mean to be a woman or man? Can one be neither? How does gender inform what we think about the good, truth, rationality, and justice? (How) Can answers to these questions help those who seek to resist and end domination, exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, imperialism, and/or violence? This course explores these questions from a broad range of feminist perspectives as well as from ones that are not feminist.
Course at Richland Correctional Institution (RiCI) in Mansfield:
Sociology 4505: Capital Punishment with Mansfield Campus Professor Terri Winnick (winnick.3@osu.edu)
This course will examine the death penalty—its administration throughout history--both legally and culturally, with emphasis on pivotal Supreme Court cases that have shaped its use. We also will explore capital punishment’s relationship with race and class, and the impact of the death penalty on victim families as well as the condemned persons’ families. We end by considering capital punishment’s future in the US.
