Instructors: Chris Hedges & Boris Franklin
Title: Giving a Voice to the Voiceless
Description: This seminar, which will include the book Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison by Chris Hedges and the play Caged written by The New Jersey Prison Theater Cooperative, will examine the transformative power of education and creative self-expression in prison. It will be at once an exploration of the power of art to heal and the power of art as a form of self-expression, especially for giving words to the suffering, loss, grief and shame that comes with being a prisoner. Students will be expected to be familiar with the texts to participate in class discussions with professors Chris Hedges and Boris Franklin.
Titles and Assigned Reading:
Required Books:
Mondays October 3, 10, 17, 24 at 7pm New York time.
Session I: Read up to Chapter Four (page 52) in Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison by Chris Hedges (Oct 3, Monday at 7pm New York Time)
Session II: Read up to Chapter Seven (page 128) in Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison by Chris Hedges (Oct 10, Monday at 7 pm New York Time)
Session III: Finish Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison by Chris Hedges (Oct 17, Monday at 7pm New York Time)
Session IV: Read the play Caged written by The New Jersey Prison Theater Cooperative (Oct 24, Monday at 7pm New York Time)
Requirements: One 1,500 word paper due at the end of the semester on a central theme raised in the class for those seeking credit. You may take the course without fulfilling this requirement but you will not receive credit).
Date/Times: Each class will be one hour and held between 7:00 and 8:00 pm EST in May on Mondays. The dates of the class will be May 2, 9, 16 and 23.
Format: GCAS live online platform. Once you sign-up you will be assigned a GCAS account a week before the first meeting time so you can access the seminar platform.
Required Books
Other books by the Instructors (not required for the seminar)
Once you complete the course you may request a PDF or a hardcopy of a “Certificate of Completion” signed digitally by the instructors. You qualify for a “Certificate of Completion” only if you submit and pass the writing portion of the 1,500 word essay. This is graded pass/fail. The cost is 10€ for PDF and 50€ for the hard copy (includes postage and handling).