Skip to main content

Social Issues in Historical Context

Past SIHC Events

October 28-December 17, 2016 - Incarceration Nation exhibit at Colorado College's gallery, the I.D.E.A. space. The exhibition featured artists Maria Gaspar, Michelle Handelman, Jesse Krimes, Richard Ross, the Photographs from Solitary project, Alejandro Peres, and Emily Waters. The exhibition, based on art addressing incarceration, included static visual art, performance pieces, and installations.

April 18, April 19, and April 20, 2016 - Three professors from our intellectual community lecture on various issues of race and incarceration. In chronological order: Professor Amy Wood (Illinois State University): "Crime and Punishment in the Age of Jim Crow," Professor Greg Robinson (Université du Québec à Montréal): "Wartime Japanese-American Incarceration: History and Lessons," Professor Jeff Jurgens (Bard College Prison Initiative): "Why History Now? Reflections on Race, Incarceration, and Activism."

April 8-9, 2016 - The Colorado College Prison Project, a student run prison advocacy group that works with the History Department, put on an art installation/demonstration about solitary confinement. "Inside the Box," as it's called, put 5 solitary confinement cell-sized boxes in front of Worner Student Center, and these were inhabited by 5 members of our community for 24 hours, after lectures by CC Professor Kristi Erdal and community leader Robert Curtis.

March 1, 2016 - Panel discussion of (and reaction to) Anna Deavere Smith's lecture, with CC Professor Manya Whitaker, Judge Regina Walter, Professor Rich Keilholtz of Pueblo Community College, Lossie Ortiz of Palmer High School's Restorative Justice Program, and CC student Rebekah Adair.

February 29, 2016 - Actress Anna Deavere Smith visits CC lectures on the School-to-Prison Pipeline in America, followed by a meet-and-greet session.

November 3, 2015 - Performance of the play "Mariposa and the Saint" at CC, with a dialogue/workshop hosted by the ACLU of Colorado.

September 30, October 1, and October 2, 2015 - Professor Paul Friedland (Cornell University) and Death Row Chaplain George Williams (San Quentin) speak about current use of Capital Punishment in the United States.

Read about it in The Catalyst!

March 2, 2015 - Professor Jasbir K. Puar (Rutgers) lectures on the "right" to maim, i.e. disablement, in Gaza, and other areas affected by disaster capitalism.

January 28, 2015 - Professor Jonathan Metzl (Vanderbilt) speaks on the issues about mental illness within spheres of race, politics, and criminilization.

December 8, 2014 - Rashad Shabazz (Arizona State University) shares his research on the intersection between theories of race and racism, black cultural studies, gender studies, and critical prison studies, within a methodological framework that draws on history, human geography, philosophy, and literature.

Report an issue - Last updated: 01/11/2022

What is the SIHC Initiative?

History - dostoevsky

Started in 2014, the Social Issues in Historical Context initiative is a $200,000, three year grant from an anonymous donor to investigate various transnational and trans-historical issues common to human experience across time and space. Specifically, the Initiative looks toward the historical roots of incarceration as means of discipline, punishment, and social control, and how the histories of these elements of human life have shaped our present experiences. The Initiative officially began with a dinner and discussion on November 14, 2014 with a lunch discussion and speech from Susan Burch, Director for the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity at Middlebury College.

Read more about it here