Digital Commons Network^™

Mapping Social Justice: A Case Study Of A School Of Social Work Student-Led Social Justice Initiative, Lauren Abdill

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

Throughout the history of social work, two different branches – micro social work and macro social work – have emerged. Micro social work is largely focused on treating mental and behavioral health problems in individuals, couples and groups. Macro social work, meanwhile, focuses on making systemic changes through advocacy like lobbying and community organizing. Despite their differences, a key principle unites these branches: social justice. Although the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) identify social justice as a guiding principle of social work, there is little consensus in the field of what …

A Social Justice Manifesto: An Examination Of Social Justice As A Process, Austin Clements

Social Justice Class Papers

Social justice is a very broad term and one that is not easily defined. Is it certain issues or is it a broad range of issues? Is it one particular methodology or is it a variety of methodologies? It is a term that can provoke both a sense of pride and a roaring ire towards anyone who uses it in a positive context. Why is social justice a term that provokes so many different emotions, opinions, and ideas about its origins? It is because social justice itself is a term that possesses a different meaning, dependent on who is using …

Callisto As A Value Agent: How This Online Site For College Sexual Assault Reporting Extends Value Design, Stephen J. Lilley, Amanda Moras

Sociology Faculty Publications

In this paper, we offer a case study of Callisto, an online site for sexual assault reporting, to highlight innovations in value design. We compare Callisto first to ordinary reporting systems, second to value design projects in computer/information system engineering, and third to large scale social movements and social media enterprises. Callisto stands out from other systems based on its exceptional value agency- a measure of a system’s societal reach, resource commitment, and value design engineering. As such, it provides a model for human rights and social justice campaigns.

Understanding Resilience Strategies Among Minor-Attracted Individuals, Allyson Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The field of criminology generally assumes that attraction to minors is synonymous with sex offending. This erroneous and reductive assumption has led to a lack of exploration into the lives of individuals who are attracted to minors and who live their lives without offending. The lack of research on this topic reinforces the already overwhelming stigma against this population, and has limited our understanding of how individuals who are attracted to minors strategize to refrain from offending. This knowledge may also help others struggling with these attractions to remain resilient.

This dissertation is a result of efforts to learn more …

Assessing The Cyborg Center: Assemblage-Based, Feminist Frameworks Toward Socially Just Writing Center Assessments, Erin M. Andersen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation will broaden the purview of recent scholarship pertaining to socially just writing assessments by making connections among assemblage theory and materialism, studies of ecological and anti-racist assessments, and studies of writing center work, to ground theoretical conversations in everyday practices. Focusing on systemic oppression in the neoliberal university and consciously using assemblage theory as a mechanism for confronting multiliteracies allows writing center directors to see the constant movement and reshaping of students’ knowledges as they approach different environments, different courses, and different genres. Notions of intra-relatedness and intertwinings evident in assemblage theory are essential to this dissertation’s consideration …

Black Lives Matter: A Call To Action For Counseling Psychology Leaders, Candice Hargons, Della Mosley, Jameca Falconer, Reuben Faloughi, Anneliese Singh, Danelle Stevens-Watkins, Kevin Cokley

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Police brutality and widespread systemic racism represent historical and current sources of trauma in Black communities. Both the Black Lives Matter movement and counseling psychology propose to confront these realities at multiple levels. Black Lives Matter seeks to increase awareness about systemic racism and promote resilience among Black people. Counseling psychology states values of multiculturalism, social justice, and advocacy. Executive leadership in counseling psychology may seek to promote racial justice, yet struggle with how to participate in Black Lives Matter movements and address racial discrimination within larger systems spontaneously and consistently. However, counseling psychology trainees and professionals are actively involved …

Danielle Roos, Aleisa Dornbierer-Schat

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Silently Crying Out Loud, Chris None

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The expectation to do the absolute impossible is so overwhelming. The majority of us are working toward change. It’s a terribly slow process. I personally don’t feel it would be so slow if we received the help and encouragement we were promised upon being sent to prison. I have written a series of letters that discuss some of our thoughts and feelings to the people who affect or are affected by the prison system. These letters range from the prisoners all the way up to the President of the United States. They are not directed toward any one prison, but …

A Life Unraveled, Jessica Jade

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

[...] My family, besides my mom, has had its fair share of incarceration. If it wasn’t one, it was the other or none of us at all. Even though I am now the one imprisoned, my family’s support is amazing. Life-changing events happen on the daily, but it’s how you handle them. You can be on the grind, but which grind you pick up is what counts. They are a constant in my life for better or worse. When they were addicts I had to grow up extremely fast, but now, with their help I have been able to grow …

On The Run, Teresa Hart

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

I sit here a prisoner, an inmate, property of the state, a number. I live in a cell with a number and a letter above my door. A picture of my cellie and a picture of me, both stuck to the door with Velcro. These are the only things that signify we live there. Many of us inmates like to call this place “Camp Cupcake.” This facility is comparable to a girl’s school. It is safe here, but there is no rehabilitation. If we don’t work hard on our own to grow, it can be a place where women’s bodies …

The Wound May Heal, But The Scar Will Remain, Latasha Lynn Lebeau

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

As I lay here on my bunk in my six-foot cage, trying to get past all my hate and rage. Wondering will my kids ever forgive me for being in this prison of Hell that I’ve created within myself? Hoping that they will understand my addiction has nothing to do with them. It’s been a demon that I once called friend. Only because she is always there waiting for me to give in. Please know I’ve been dealing with this demon long before I ever dreamed of having them. Yes, my four sons mean so much more than this demon …

Ignorance Is No Excuse, Sara Bueller

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

There was a time that I knew exactly who I was, and in my over-inflated sense of self, I thought that I had an awesome life and that the rules didn’t apply to me. This is a true story, a snapshot of how I once lived my life. Although I was not a heavy drug user, I was nevertheless an addict. My addiction? A relationship. This is a story of how a disillusioned single mother single-handedly changed her and her son’s lives forever, and how her actions sent them down a road to hell they will never forget.

Sissy, Sissy Pierce

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

I’ve been incarcerated for 16 years. I will be 70 years old in August of 2018. I have been here at the Wyoming Women’s Center for the last nine years, and the seven years before that were spent out-of-state in private prisons. On December 28 of 1999, I shot my husband and, I was told, killed him instantly. It didn’t mean that I didn’t value human life or that I didn’t care about him. I did. I had never been in trouble with the law in my life. I was a child bride with four children by the time I …

Hard Won Lessons, Darla D. Rouse

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Right now I’m in an orange prison uniform sitting at a desk in a cell of the Wyoming Women’s Center. It should be called Wyoming Women’s Prison. Do not get confused by the word “Center.” It is a prison. People see “Center” in its name and get a glossed-over idea that it’s not really prison. Prison is meant to keep you away from life as you knew it. You don’t get to be with your family. You don’t get to raise your kids, or go grocery shopping, or drive your car, or use your cell phone. No career, no home, …

What Doesn’T Kill You Makes You Stronger, Kendra Leigh Horn

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

My name is Kendra and I’m a 27-year-old writing from the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk, Wyoming. I would like to tell you about my life experiences as a teenager and adult. I want to help you understand that you can overcome your hardships. I want to encourage you to never give up. I want you to empower yourself to be better than you are. I want to help you understand that you deserve the best in life if you have the courage, confidence and strength to make life great. Here is my life story to help you understand. There …

Her Name Was Flor, Cassandra Hunter

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

During this process of helping the women draft their memoirs, I wholly admired them for their ability to share such damning and alternately courageous moments that shaped their lives, but I was also scared for them. There is such a stigma attached to the notion of incarceration and because of this I have hid my own story for years. Thus, I was left with the belief that if these women are strong enough to help each other and help other women then I should also be willing to tell my story. The purpose of this special issue, in my view, …

Inside This Place, Not Of It: Narratives From Women’S Prisons By Robin Levi & Ayelet Waldman, Verso, 2016, Julia Dohan

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Inside this Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons by Robin Levi & Ayelet Waldman, Verso, 2016

Captive Gender: Trans Embodiment And The Prison Industrial Complex, Edited By Eric A. Stanley & Nat Smith, Ak Press, 2015, Jess White

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Captive Gender: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, edited by Eric A. Stanley & Nat Smith, AK Press, 2015

Memoir & Memory: A “Telling My Story” Focus Group, Jess White

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

For the final class session, we conducted a focus group to invite the women to share their own perspectives on the “Telling My Story” class and the collaborative anthology they had produced. Our intent was to give the women in the class space to discuss the writing and workshop process. Since the workshop was designed to offer the women at the facility a creative outlet, we wanted to elicit their feedback on class structure and curriculum. In this narrative summary, the women are generally referred to by the names they chose to publish under in in order to preserve confidentiality …

Heaven.Hell.Repeat., Bdk None

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Hell Through the Eyes of a Young Child

Secret Storm, Deedee None

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The story of what brought me to prison is one of abuse. I lived with domestic violence for many years. I could see no way out as I was blinded by fear—fear of breaking up my family, fear of failing in my marriage, fear of my husband. My story is one of many behind these walls. Currently, the Wyoming Women’s Center does not offer domestic violence support groups or classes to teach the skills necessary to educate and empower women in order to prevent them from continuing this sort of relationship. It is what I call a secret storm.

Editorial, Susan Dewey

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This special issue features the dynamic results of feminist collaborative work undertaken as part of Wyoming Pathways from Prison (WPfP), a trans-disciplinary and trans-professional statewide collaborative that aspires to support currently and formerly incarcerated people in navigating the waters of higher education and life more generally. WPfP works in close collaboration with the Wyoming Department of Corrections (DOC) and is co-coordinated by Susan Dewey, Alec Muthig, Katy Brock, and Rhett Epler with the primary goals of: offering college credit to incarcerated people at no cost, mentoring University of Wyoming (UW) students in teaching and leadership, engaging in valuable service to …

A Photo-Essay, Lorna Barton

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Dr. Dewey asked me to document our journey from Colorado to Lusk, Wyoming in photographs for this special issue I was extremely excited at the prospect. She gave me the freedom to take photographs of what I felt represented the journey for many women who have and will take to the prison, the Women’s Center in Lusk. The photos selected by Dr. Dewey are solely a handful of what was taken but are a full representation of the journey, and I wanted to introduce the photographs by highlighting my feelings and reflections on them. I do not feel that my …

Reducing Recidivism Through Education, Katy Brock

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Over the last two and a half decades, the population of incarcerated women in the United States has dramatically increased (Carver & Harrison, 2016). In 1980, 26,300 women were incarcerated in the U.S., while 215,300 were incarcerated in 2014 (The Sentencing Project, 2015) and the rate at which women are being incarcerated does not appear to be declining. A positive impact on women’s recidivism could be made by making more educational opportunities available to women in prison.

3:15 P.M., Sarah M. Lujan

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

I open this memoir with Chapter 1, Special Visit, which is about the event of my loss. Chapter 2, Beyond 3:15 p.m., sheds light on my life while incarcerated. I continue with Chapter 3, Titanium, in which I go into depth about how surreal my addiction is. In Memories, Chapter 4, I explain some of my heartache. Chapter 5, My Turning Point, I focus on the change and where and how it gets its power. In my final chapter, 3:15 p.m., I return to the beginning. I paint the whole picture by elaborating on my motivation to change by using …

Nineteen And Life, Clover Brown

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The man who murdered my fiancé was in charge. I did whatever Mick said, when he said it, and in doing so, appeared complicit in the crime. A razor. A knife. Stab wounds. Once I realized that the situation was real, that he was really going to kill my fiancé, I decided to try and stop it in the best way I could. Mick asked me if I had a knife. I told him, “I’ll check the kitchen, I haven’t finished unpacking, I’m not sure.” In my mind I was going to hide the knife in the sink full of …

The Juice Box, Amanda Bayne

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

When you are young you feel that you are invincible— bulletproof. You know everything you need to know, and you can do no wrong. You feel that the world is your personal oyster and that you’re just waiting for that one grain of sand to make you the perfect pearl. Then, in an instant, youth's fragile window of optimism gets shattered and you realize that the world is now your cage. In one downward stroke of some Judge’s gavel you are forever branded a felon. The man in black has made you another American statistic. “Oh, don’t feel bad,” he …

The Secret Life Of Dhal, D. Jackson

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

I know reading my story about child sexual abuse will be difficult for many people. I also understand you may be furious or even disgusted by what you read. This is not the purpose, and I don’t want your forgiveness. As you read this, I ask you to listen to gain a deeper understanding of how child sexual abuse impacts lives. I hope that by sharing my story I can further awareness so that all of us, including other survivors of abuse, can become more consciously aware of the warning signs and the impact that this has on children. My …

The Place To Go In Your Head: Editing The “Telling My Story” Collection, Jess White

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

I was part of a group of MFA students who worked with the “Telling My Story” class remotely. […] Taking part in this workshop meant helping to build a platform for these women – to facilitate their work and promote their writing. I’m not a writer who prefers solitude or isolation, but I am a writer granted the privilege of select time – two pleasant years’ worth in a setting designed to teach me to value my talent and my vocation. As an editor for this anthology, I have had the opportunity to transmit some of that recognition to a …

The Women We Are, Katy Brock

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The purpose of this piece is to share the social and emotional influences which impacted the lives of two women in the context of national and international events that occurred during the lives of the two women. Darla is a resident of the Wyoming Women’s Center (WWC), Wyoming’s prison for women and Katy is doctoral student at the University of Wyoming. The two women met at WWC during a college writing course in which Katy co-facilitated and Darla was enrolled.