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Volume 51, Issue 98 | thursday, march 2, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com
Author explores inmate education Lecturer examines college-in-prison programs as part of Mass Incarceration Awareness Week By AIDAN LEWIS News Writer
Daniel Karpowitz, the author of “College in Prison: Reading in an Age of Mass Incarceration,” discussed the higher education of prison inmates on Wednesday afternoon in McKenna Hall. Karpowitz said the concept of college-inprison programs, which aim to provide degrees to inmates while in prison, is representative of a much bigger idea. “College-in-prison awakens lurking doubts about whether anybody every truly changes — a question that lies at the heart of nearly all thinking not only about education, but also about democracy itself,” Karpowitz said in a reading from his book. Karpowitz said people are split on whether college-inprison is in fact a positive development within the prison
system. “The angry and resentful rejection of opportunity for people who have done bad is very common,” Karpowitz said. However, Karpowitz said the importance of college-in-prison is in part because the current prison system only claims to provide rehabilitation, but, in reality, it is a toxic environment for inmates. “All of the prisons I have entered strike me as places of waste that perpetuate and intensify both racial and class inequality,” Karpowitz said. “As a result, prisons, among the most important and pervasive public institutions of our age, undermine our democracy and do a disservice to the republic they are meant to serve.” Karpowitz, who also serves as the director of policy and see EDUCATION PAGE 3
SARAH OLSON | The Observer
Author Daniel Karpowitz discusses educational opportunities for prison inmates Wednesday at Notre Dame. The event, which was held in McKenna Hall, was part of Mass Incarceration Awareness Week.
SMC alumna discusses eating disorders By GINA TWARDOSZ News Writer
As part of Love Your Body Week, alumna Lisa Clarkson spoke about her struggle with the eating disorder she had during her time as a student at Saint Mary’s.
Clarkson said she was diagnosed with anorexia, accompanied by occasional bulimic symptoms. “About eight years ago, a medical professional first diagnosed me with an eating disorder,” she said. “I was 17 then and I truly believed
everyone was overreacting. I thought my restrictive diet and significant weight loss meant I was in control, but my eating disorder controlled me for much of my teenage and early adult life.” see ALUMNA PAGE 4
Music department features ‘1917: Over There’ concert One hundred years after the United States entered World War I, the dramatized concert “1917: Over There,” presented by the Saint Mary’s College Department of Music, captures the historical and emotional components of the war through music and poetry. The concert is a product of
associate professor of music Dr. Laurel Thomas’ time on sabbatical, and uses readings and music to craft a recital that traces American’s changing attitude about joining the war while also expressing the psychological and philosophical meaning of the war, she said. “Woodrow Wilson is re-elected in late 1916 on the platform of staying neutral, and keeping the U.S.
out of the war,” Thomas said in an email. “But Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare and the horrible plight of the French and the British in trench warfare causes public opinion to change, and we enter the war in early 1917. Changing political attitudes are reflected in popular songs of the time.”
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By KATHRYN MARSHALL News Writer
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Gender studies conference opens By KELLI SMITH News Writer
Aiming at facilitating discussion on issues related to gender and race, the fourth biennial international Gender Studies Program Conference titled “Intersectional Inquiries and Collaborative Action: Gender and Race” is set to take place in McKenna Hall starting Thursday afternoon. Organized by faculty and students associated with the Gender Studies Program, the three-day event will feature a multitude of guest speakers, artists and activists from across the nation and world who specialize in a variety of disciplines. “The conference is bringing together some of the best and brightest people in intersectionality studies, but we are gathering not just to discuss research but also to strategize solutions for our world’s ongoing problems regarding race and gender,” Gender Studies Program director Mary
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Celeste Kearney said. The conference will consist of roundtables, creative presentations, papers, two plenary sessions and a keynote address, all of which will feature an array of perspectives on topics related to the conference’s theme: intersections of race and gender. “I think this conference may have more of an impact on our campus community than previous Gender Studies conferences, since it is not just focused on scholarship, but also art work and activism,” Kearney said. “The issues we’ll be discussing impact everyone, not just academics.” According to the conference program, some of the topics that will be addressed at the conference are pay equity, equitable representation in the media, asylum seekers, the Black Lives Matter movement, feminist teaching and learning in secondary schools, sexual violence across a continuum of institutional see CONFERENCE PAGE 3
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