Inside-Out at 20: The Power of Connection and Community

The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program’s mission is to create opportunities for people in and out of prison to share transformative learning experiences that emphasize collaboration and dialogue and open up possibilities for creating wider, more systemic change through civic agency and human connection. The program’s core practice is bringing college students (“outside” students) together with incarcerated men and women (“inside” students) for semester-long college courses behind prison walls. This fall, Inside-Out will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a symposium that will bring together instructors and alumni, supporters, and partners as well as the Swarthmore and broader communities in commemoration of its successes and in contemplation of its impacts, challenges, and goals.

This celebration will include a morning session with founder and executive director Lori Pompa; plenary conversations between practitioners and scholars, including James Forman Jr., Monique Morris, Susan Burton, Shaka Senghor, and Reginald Dwayne Betts; and exhibits and workshops in celebration of our work together. Please join us as we highlight the best aspects of Inside-Out’s pedagogical tools and practices, examine the state of mass incarceration and the possibilities for redress, and collectively imagine a more equitable society and begin the crucial next steps toward achieving it.

Friday, Oct. 20, 2017

8:30 a.m. Welcome/opening session

9:30 a.m. Concurrent panel sessions

11:30 a.m. Poster session

1 p.m. Concurrent panel sessions

2:30 p.m. Concurrent panel sessions

6 p.m. Evening plenary
Lang Music Building, Lang Concert Hall

8 p.m. General reception
Kohlberg Hall, Scheuer Room