Dr. Alexander Burry is a Professor in the Dept of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at Ohio State, as well as an OPEEP faculty member.
What prompted you to become an OPEEP instructor?
Jennifer Suchland, who taught in OPEEP several years ago, gave a short presentation on it at a faculty meeting last year. I expressed an interest in teaching Russian literature, and/or possibly other subjects, and our chair (Angela Brintlinger) encouraged me to do so. I attended the training workshop for OPEEP instruction last May, and was inspired by our visit to the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. It made me see that there is a real demand for these kinds of courses, and more importantly, for interactions that break down barriers between incarcerated and non-incarcerated people.
Although I do not have a background in social justice, I used to teach a course on representations of the death penalty in literature and film, and this certainly involved a lot of reading and discussion of the carceral system. I think this planted the seed for broader rethinking of prison as an institution, and attention to the social and racial injustice that is engrained in the system.
What courses have you taught (or will you be teaching) for OPEEP, and have there been any challenges?
I’m scheduled to teach my first course for OPEEP, Masterpieces of Russian Literature in Translation, this fall. However, I have also been part of a learning community since last fall, joined by fellow faculty Viet Trinh and Elea Proctor, which meets every other Monday at the London Correctional Institution (LoCI). Our community is called “Department of Deep Discussions” (DDD), and we’ve been reading a series of dystopian works by W. E. B. DuBois, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin, N. K. Jemisin, and other writers. It’s been an incredibly enlightening experience, because the incarcerated members of the community offer such a wide variety of perspectives. Some of them have knowledge of scientific, religious, and other areas that enables me to see texts I’ve read and taught repeatedly in a whole new way.
What takeaways would you like students to leave your class with?
I’d like them to see the inside students as genuine intellectual peers, not just people whose lives we are trying to improve with this inside/outside format (although we hope to help in that way, too). I want both sets of students to feel like they have learned a great deal from each other. Since my fall course will be on Russian literature, it occurs to me that Russians have often called prisoners “neschastnye,” which means “unfortunate ones.” The idea is that anyone can experience misfortune and go down a harmful path, and that in many ways it’s a matter of good or bad luck whether someone ends up incarcerated. It would be great if the students had a deeper sense of this after the course.
What is the one thing you wish more people knew about prison abolition and transformative justice?
I would love it if more people read books such as Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which was so eye-opening for me. If people understood prison not as a means of simply punishing offenders but a deeply racist system that preys on and exacerbates social injustice and economic disparities, they would take abolition more seriously.
What do you like to do in your free time?
With three sons (a 14-year-old and 11-year-old twins), a lot of my free time simply goes to them – reading books, going to parks, cooking and baking together, etc. But I do have other pursuits! I studied violin for 13 years from grade school through college, and started practicing again during the pandemic. As soon as I get past the tennis elbow I picked up from poor technique and posture (!), I hope to take lessons again and try to improve my playing.