The Art of Liberating Humanity

Authors

  • Brandyn Heppard Raritan Valley Community College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v10i3.186302

Keywords:

Critical Pedagogy, Abolitionist Reform, Higher Education in Prison, Prisons, Higher Education, Correctional Education, Prison Education

Abstract

The Art of Liberating Humanity is an essay that gestures at abolitionist prison reform. Situating itself against liberal and neo-liberal calls for greater access to any and all forms of education in prisons, particularly the prevailing trends that encourage STEM and/or business fields, or reductionist arguments for vocational training, as well as against radical abolitionist arguments that prison reforms only serve to “pad the cage,” this essay advocates in favor of a liberal arts and humanities rich curriculum for incarcerated students, particularly because of their ability to activate the radical imagination. Drawing heavily on Herbert Marcuse’s essay, On Liberation, and inspired by tradition of radical pedagogy- and the likes of Freire and hooks- this essay undertakes the prison classroom as a space of resistance with radical potential.

Author Biography

Brandyn Heppard, Raritan Valley Community College

Assistant Professor, Philosophy
Co-Director of RVCC Women's Center

Downloads

Published

2018-02-01

Issue

Section

Radical Departures: Ruminations on the Purposes of Higher Education in Prison