
Social Justice Project
Join an interdisciplinary public scholarship and digital humanities project
focused on health, inequality, and the wars on drugs and crime
Project
We Are All Students was started by formerly incarcerated and system-impacted (FI/SI) scholars. It combines our firsthand experience and academic research with digital media to 1) inform the public about the ideas and experiences of FI/SI people pursuing higher education in the shadow of incarceration; 2) transform false and misleading narratives about us and our communities into more factual and constructive ones; and 3) reform unjust education and incarceration policies and practices.
Position
Students, scholars, and others from all disciplines and backgrounds can help produce digital content based on existing scholarship, our original research, and firsthand accounts of mass incarceration and the wars on drugs and crime. Meetings are hybrid, and you can attend entirely remotely. You’ll gain skill in research, communication, digital design, social media management, and leadership. Potential responsibilities include:
- Working independently and as part of a team to plan and produce online content that changes narratives surrounding mass incarceration
- Reviewing, synthesizing, and communicating about published research
- Editing photos, video, and various types of data to produce digital content
- Thinking creatively about using new media to disseminate information and advance social justice
- Confronting social problems with members of communities most negatively impacted by them
Past members have gone into public health, legal, and non-profit fields, worked for organizations serving formerly incarcerated people, and more. Other students can likely earn internship credit through their university.
Prerequisites
No previous experience is necessary. The most important qualifications are:
- A commitment to spend 5+ hours each week attending meetings and completing assigned work
- The ability to work both independently and as a group
- A desire to regularly engage in conversations about politically sensitive and emotionally charged issues surrounding mass incarceration, including race and class, sexual violence, and state atrocities
- The ability to communicate about expectations, problems, and questions
- An interest in learning about the intersection of the criminal legal system with other public institutions
- A willingness to continue (re)educating yourself about the history and politics of mass incarceration and the wars on drugs and crime from a critical perspective