Search Results (71)

Strategic Autobiographical Narrative is a pedagogical concept designating the deliberate and structured use of self-narration as a tool for learning, identity reconstruction and community engagement in contexts of social exclusion. Its strategic dimension lies in the conscious articulation of memory, language and transformative action: converting lived experience into pedagogical material capable of resignifying biographical trajectories, sustaining the openness of identity to new readings, and projecting possible futures from a critical and communal perspective. The concept operates through three synchronic registers: as temporal mediation, reopening biographical time where institutions tend to freeze it; as identity mediation, sustaining the mobility of the self against classificatory fixation; and as relational mediation, creating the conditions for the intersubjective event of recognition within a space of non-judgmental listening. Against the disciplinary institution’s tendency to fix identity under a single classificatory reading, the concept recovers the subject’s capacity to reinscribe their past within an open narrative and project a future not prefigured by their carceral present. Its operational methodology is structured around the ELCEN method—listen, read, converse, write and narrate—and deploys diverse autobiographical pathways oriented toward both the reconstruction of the subject’s identity and the community’s sensibilisation in the process of social reintegration. At its core lies a conviction safeguarded by oral tradition for millennia before anyone theorised it: to narrate is to coexist. Full article

This paper interrogates exclusionary discipline as a carceral practice for Black girls disproportionately exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in Tennessee. Using 2017–2018 data from the Office for Civil Rights and the National Survey of Children’s Health, we describe girls’ risk for suspensions, access to school support staff, and girls’ exposure to nine types of ACEs. Findings show Black girls in Tennessee had 4.22 times the risk of receiving a single out-of-school suspension and had 2.28 times the risk of being arrested compared to all other girls. Black girls in TN also had a higher risk for six out of nine ACEs, with a statistically significant ACE of parental divorce. We posit that the disproportional discipline and ACEs that Black girls experience are rooted in structural inequities that undergird the abuse-to-prison pipeline. We suggest that eradicating the adversity-to-prison pipeline requires schools to view ACEs as systemic harm, not personal deficits, and adopt intersectional, healing-focused reforms led by school social workers. Full article

Deaths caused by or connected to exposure to Brazilian prisons are widely acknowledged as frequent and preventable, yet official data fails to capture their scale, causes, and circumstances. To circumvent what official administrative datasets miss, this article examines an original dataset of 1077 criminal case files from 27 Brazilian state courts involving individuals who died between 2017 and 2021 after having been incarcerated. Drawing on the systematic document review of these cases, we analyze sociodemographic characteristics, health information, causes of death, and judicial responses, distinguishing between deaths occurring in custody (“internal”) and after release (“external”). Our findings reveal pervasive omissions in basic demographic and medical information, extensive use of ill-defined causes of death, and a striking absence of investigation in most cases, including deaths under direct state custody. We identify instances of obfuscation and judicial inaction that, together with the absence of reliable administrative data, are likely to sustain institutional ignorance and normalize preventable deaths. This study advances debates on incarceration and health, state accountability, and proposes the concept of prison lethality: the capacity of carceral spaces to increase people’s exposure to health risks and harms, combined with the epistemic practices that shed light on or obfuscate this capacity. Full article

This article examines the interaction between phenomenological illness theory and magical realism in Stephen King’s The Green Mile. It uses ideas from phenomenological psychopathology and illness narrative theory to explain how King presents supernatural events through a restrained and matter-of-fact narrative register. Instead of considering magical realism as a genre or a mere literary device, the article views magical realism as a stylistic mode that is produced by the tension between realistic descriptions and unexplained supernatural moments. Through a close reading of King’s prose, especially his diction, narrative voice and bodily descriptions, this study shows that John Coffey’s healing acts represent the otherwise incommunicable experience of suffering. These supernatural events make visible forms of institutional violence such as prison brutality, racial injustice and execution, which are often invisible in traditional realist narratives. This article also argues that magical realism is not limited to Latin American literature but can function effectively in American popular fiction. Finally, the findings suggest that, while magical realism may be helpful in exposing injustice and suffering, it may also have the danger of aestheticizing pain rather than fully transforming it into political critique. Full article

Anna Burns’ No Bones has extensively documented its depiction of trauma during the Troubles; less attention has been paid to the systematic mechanisms through which pervasive psychosocial harm is quietly administered and normalised. This article moves beyond readings of individual suffering to diagnose a collective condition, arguing that Burns constructs a veritable architecture of harm: a meticulously designed system operating not through overt aggression alone, but through the mundane, yet powerfully insidious, interplay of social forces governing everyday life. This synthesis reveals how these forces converge to produce what Achille Mbembe terms a death-world: a state of being where populations are subjected to conditions that confer upon them the status of the living dead. Within this necropolitical landscape, the protagonist Amelia’s routines are dictated by shrinking spatial affordances, while incessant rumour functions as a policing mechanism that enforces social death long before physical death is a threat. This analysis demonstrates that harm is not an atmospheric byproduct of conflict, but the very logic of this architecture, which compels the community to participate in its own subjugation. Ultimately, by mapping this architecture, this article reframes Burns’ novel from a historical text of the Troubles into a trenchant meditation on the governance of populations under duress. It offers a vital framework for understanding how quiet harm is spatially engineered, a dynamic with profound relevance for contemporary studies of carceral geographies, algorithm-driven social control, and the politics of atmospheric violence. It posits Burns’ work as a crucial resource for theorising the invisible structures that shape and constrain modern life. Full article

Released in 2012, Svetlana Baskova’s Za Marksa… (For Marx…) poses the question of the abolition of capitalism through workers’ struggle—that is, the question of revolution in decidedly non-revolutionary times. A follow-up to her activist documentary Odno reshenie—soprotivlenie (The Only Solution Is Resistance, 2011), For Marx… can be read as a post-Soviet return to Sergei Eisenstein’s Stachka (Strike, 1925), one that confronts the historical afterlife of the revolutionary proletariat following the rapid decomposition of the industrial working class once positioned at the center of the socialist imaginary. Borrowing its title from Louis Althusser and situating itself within an international genealogy of left debates on form and revolution—running from the Soviet avant-garde through Brechtian estrangement, militant cinema of 1968, and the collapse of “actually existing socialism”—the film mobilizes inherited models of committed art only to expose their historical limits. I argue that For Marx… does not revive earlier oppositional forms but stages their failure under contemporary capitalism. Montage, estrangement, and documentary realism appear as sedimented forms that no longer cohere into an operative revolutionary praxis. By foregrounding the exhaustion of political form, For Marx… reframes abolition—not only of the police or the carceral state but of capitalism itself—as a horizon that persists precisely where inherited aesthetic strategies break down. The film’s success lies in its refusal to offer closure, keeping the question of political transformation open. Full article

Current school level practices and policies reproduce and reify carceral logics in schools through the disproportionate exclusion, removal, policing, and surveillance of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students from low-income backgrounds. Given the link between school-based discipline and youth incarceration, we sought to understand how young people experience and respond to inequitable discipline practices in educational settings. In this two-part study, we conceptually explore the mechanisms by which schools function as an extension of the carceral system through inequitable disciplinary practices and seek to empirically understand how students perceive and experience school-level carceral logics and the processes that lead students into the juvenile legal system. Study 1 consisted of three focus groups (N = 24) with high school students from historically marginalized backgrounds and explored youth perceptions of and experiences with discipline. Study 2 consisted of six focus groups (N = 28) with community college students who were incarcerated as youth, to understand their trajectories and educational experiences before, during, and following their incarceration. Taken together, the studies illuminate the intersection of schools and prisons as complex systems that historically marginalized students must navigate to access their education, leveraging skills and collective resilience to do so. Full article

This phenomenological study explores the experiences of Black males in U.S. public schools and draws parallels between Black millennials and the “indignant generation,” a term Lawrence Jackson uses to describe African American life between 1934–1960. While the purview of school discipline discourse is saturated with conversations on racial disparities, the exigent problem still remains. As such, this research provides a nuanced probe into concepts of discontent and indignation within Black students. In doing so, this study recasts Black male students as experts, not observers, within educational research. Using counter-storytelling as the theoretical and analytical framework, this study examines both student engagement and school disaffection through the lens of “Black male positionality.” Participants (Black males, ages 25–35, n = 9) provide individual reflections of their past schooling experiences and also detail critical needs in educational reform. Using semi-structured interviews, participants provide in-depth, retrospective perspectives of schooling and reconceptualize renewed possibilities of educational reform for Black students today. The study’s major findings demonstrate school carcerality was evident via counterproductive discipline policies and semblances of “untapped potential” among students. The study’s findings surface important topics in Black education and help to broaden the scope of research to explore concepts of Blackness, being, and belonging within phenomenological studies. Full article

Endemic racism, operationalized through exclusionary discipline practices contributes to the “spirit murdering” of youth of color in schools. While the school-to-prison pipeline frames the funneling of students into the (in)justice system, the school-to-prison nexus expands this understanding by interrogating the reality that schools are prison for many. Thus, education abolitionists call for a systemic account of “schooling” to embrace creative risk and radical possibility in the pursuit of liberation. However, existing literature has not substantively centered the voices of youth directly involved in these carceral systems, nor invited them to dream. This study asks: based on formerly incarcerated students’ experiences in school and prison, what must educational systems do to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline? Guided by qualitative methods, we conducted semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated college students (four women, two men; majority Latinx/Hispanic) and conducted member checking. Our reflexive thematic analysis uncovered a troubling truth: schools frequently ignored and misinterpreted trauma, grief, and internalized pain among high school students. Participants described internal battles (i.e., mental health challenges) that often showed up externally as “behaviors” (e.g., fighting, skipping school, substance use) that resulted in exclusionary discipline. Equally important, participants re-imagined schools as homeplaces—sites of care, belonging, and agency. These narratives illuminate the need to dismantle punitive systems, center insights from those at the center of the experiences, and build just, loving, and equitable schools. Full article

Believed by many to be the “silver bullet” that will bring an end to educational inequality, AI technologies continue to proliferate within schools and classrooms, promising to bolster academic achievement, spark student engagement, and ensure campus safety while lessening the burden of overworked and systemically underpaid teachers. Despite this hype, a growing body of critical research is revealing that many of the AI technologies used in schools are rife with algorithmic biases that exacerbate, rather than remediate, educational inequity for historically marginalized students. We extend the work of scholars who have called attention to the rise of tech-mediated racism and the New Jim Code to consider how the proliferation of AI technologies into K-12 schools has worked to hide, speed up, and automate educational inequities for Black students, giving rise to a techno-educational carceral apparatus. To do so, we analyze youth interviews, youth-generated video blogs, and weekly journal reflections of 46 Black students that participated in a critical technology summer course. Full article

Pregnant people in U.S. jails experience high rates of opioid use disorder (OUD), yet access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) remains inconsistent. This mixed-methods study examines how jail policies, treatment infrastructure, and political context shape MOUD provision for pregnant incarcerated individuals. We conducted a secondary analysis of a national survey of 2885 U.S. jails (analytic sample = 836). Logistic regression models assessed associations between MOUD provision and telemedicine capacity, community MOUD availability, state Medicaid expansion, and 2020 presidential voting outcomes. Qualitative responses characterized barriers to care. Findings confirm that MOUD access for pregnant incarcerated individuals remains limited and structurally patterned. Fewer than half of jails continued methadone or buprenorphine for pregnant individuals already in treatment, and initiation was uncommon. MOUD provision was more likely in Democrat-won states, jails with telemedicine capacity, and jails located in communities with MOUD providers, while limited community availability reduced odds of provision. Qualitative themes highlighted restrictive jail policies, provider discretion, diversion concerns, and misconceptions regarding fetal harm. These findings underscore persistent structural barriers to evidence-based perinatal OUD treatment in carceral settings and highlight the importance of telemedicine expansion, community treatment capacity, and standardized correctional policies to advance perinatal health equity. Full article

Heterocyclic compounds have enormous pharmacological potential and therefore play a key role in the design of new drugs. Dipyridothiazines, both heterocyclic compounds and phenothiazine derivatives, exhibit promising anticancer, immunostimulatory, and antioxidant activities. The aim of this study was to design, synthesize, and evaluate the cytotoxicity of new 10-heteroaryl dipyridothiazines based on 2,7- and 3,6-diazaphenothiazine cores. The structural characterization of the new compounds was confirmed by spectroscopic methods. Cytotoxicity analysis was performed using the MTT assay against human keratinocytes (HaCaT) and two types of cancer cell lines: breast cancer (MDA-MB-231), lung carcer (A-549). The reference drugs used in the study were doxorubicin and cisplatin. The group of derivatives studied included active compounds as well as inactive derivatives. In order to explain differences in an activity level, molecular modelling supported by molecular dynamics was performed on histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6), a known therapeutic target associated with oncogenic transformation and cancer metastasis. Molecular docking indicated that the derivative formed on the 2,7-diazaphenothiazine core is a more potent HDAC6 inhibitor, characterized by more stable binding and more favourable complex energy, despite minimal structural differences compared to the compound formed on the 3,6-diazaphenothiazine core. A preliminary SAR analysis was performed. Full article

To redress systemically biased approaches to health interventions and service design, it is critical that public health researchers employ frameworks that are intentional in their approach to recognizing and working against existing power structures to advance equity in public health. Design Justice represents an approach to design which centers marginalized people and uses collaborative design processes to address community needs and challenges. The purpose of this paper is to describe our process for applying a Design Justice framework to Project XX. Project XX is a study funded by XX designed to develop and test an eHealth-enhanced peer navigation intervention to improve engagement in substance use and HIV-related services for young adults with recent carceral system involvement. We situate the project within the theoretical foundation of Design Justice and community-engaged research, describe its development and implementation, and analyze the application of Design Justice principles from an implementation science perspective by overlaying them with Stanford University’s Center for Dissemination and Implementation’s five key dimensions of dissemination and implementation methods. We highlight successes, challenges, and lessons learned, offering recommendations to guide more equitable and inclusive approaches for future research and practice. Full article

Under the Eighth Amendment, prisons are legally mandated to provide constitutionally adequate standards of medical care to the incarcerated. But how do we make sense of a carceral structure in which the very delivery of medical care results in preventable death? This article offers a carceral case study of how prison medical care during the era of mass incarceration generates racialized mortality at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola Prison. By analyzing caselaw documents drawn from the docket of Lewis v. Cain, an ongoing lawsuit alleging inadequate medical care at Angola, this article seeks to address the limits of pursuing relief from prison conditions through legal interventions and reforms that are always yet to arrive. Rather than examining prison medical care and preventable death as problems to be reformed, this project aims to develop theoretical insight into how Angola Prison enacts “medical violence” against its captive population. This refers to the use of prison healthcare capacities to harm rather than affirm the lives of the incarcerated. As this case study argues, medical violence operates through organized abandonment, disregard, and carceral extraction, which together extend the life of the prison through the deaths of its captive population. Full article

This paper reads coal as a metonym for London’s social fabric in the writings of police theorist Patrick Colquhoun, the archival reports on the Wapping Coal Riot, and the anti-carceral poetry of William Blake. In 1798, at the behest of the West India Committee, Colquhoun had developed the first modern police force, the Thames River Police, which predated Robert Peel’s metropolitan police by over 20 years. Colquhoun’s “Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames” (1800) centers on coal in his case for policing. In his argument, coal’s energy economies link domestic affairs with the entire metropolis, making policing a city-wide problem, one that merits public support (and public funding). In reading Colquhoun’s treatise as an example of the entanglement of policing and fossil fuel power, I discuss the relevant literature from the energy humanities that connects fossil energy to the larger extractive ideologies of empire. I also demonstrate how Colquhoun’s figuring of coal builds on but alters portrayals of coal in Jonathan Swift and Anna Barbauld. The final section of this discussion demonstrates how Blake’s Jerusalem (1820) indexes dispersed, atmospheric systems of carceral power and summons dynamic, unpoliceable crowds. Blake’s smoke poetics sketch a limit of generalization, one that recoups figures of pollution and waste to riot against the systems that produce them. Full article