Facilitating Community Conversations on Crime and Punishment

FAIN: GW-254003-17

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark (Newark, NJ 07104-3010)
Liz Sevcenko (Project Director: August 2016 to present)

A series of community dialogues across the country on the history and impact of incarceration and policing, centered on a traveling exhibition, a web platform, and public programs.

The Humanities Action Lab, a consortium of 20 universities working with issue organizations and public spaces, requests funds to facilitate humanities-centered community conversations in 8 communities on the past, present, and future of incarceration and policing. Conversations will build on HAL’s nationally traveling exhibit, States of Incarceration, created by students and people directly affected by incarceration in 20 communities by: 1) bringing the exhibit to each community that created it, as a common experience and catalyst for conversations; 2) supporting community-created companion exhibits that further explore local histories; 3) hosting Mass Stories: public dialogue events that use local storytelling to inspire national creative visioning; and 4) linking local dialogues into national conversation, using the project’s digital media platforms and a Position in the Public Humanities who will travel to each of the communities.