Teaching in Death-dealing Contexts: Prison as a Place of Liberative Education

What does it mean to teach theology and religion in death-dealing, dehumanizing contexts – i.e. prison? Reflecting upon years of experiences with teaching in carceral spaces, the panelists will explore the ways that a particular context helps reimagine the purpose of education and the role of teachers and learners. Given hooks and Freire’s imaginative stance that teaching must be transgressive, what does it take to bring emancipatory education to people who are in the correction system? This panel will engage the recently released books of Sarah F. Farmer’s Restorative Hope: Creating Space for Connection in Women’s Prisons and Rachelle Green’s Learning to Live: Prison, Pedagogy, and Theological Education discussing the ways teaching in prison raises new questions for educators of theology and religion. Theological education, and those practicing liberative pedagogy, must be willing grapple with these 21st century questions.