This course will provide a critical introduction to the fundamental principles and practices of restorative justice including its historical and indigenous roots. The course explores the needs and roles of key “stakeholders” (victims, offenders, communities, justice systems), outlines the basic principles and values of restorative justice, and introduces some of the primary models of practice used both globally as well as locally. The course will also address the challenges to restorative justice—the dangers, the pitfalls—as well as possible strategies to help prevent restorative justice from failing to live to its full promise.
Course Synopsis

This team-taught course draws on the expertise of a variety of transnational activists, as well as Knox and outside faculty; and is overseen by one coordinating-integrating professor. Topics covered include a variety of methodological approaches to activism: from environmental justice activism to prison abolition to the role of the arts and humanities as agents for change. We explore the power and limits of Peace and Social Justice resistance (s). The course is one of two required courses for the Peace and Justice Minor.

PRISON EDUCATION: A PRACTICUM (PJST 211-1 )

Class Meeting Time: 5S Period T/R (12:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.)

OLD MAIN 301

 Professor:  Leanne Trapedo Sims

          Telephone: 309-341-7835 office

           Email: ltrapedosims@knox.edu

         Office Hours:   R: 4-6 pm and by appointment: Borzello 128 

Course Description
Drawing on theories of critical pedagogy and critical race, this course will use the text Turning Teaching Inside Out: A Pedagogy of Transformation for Community-based Education as well as the Abolition Journal to explore community-based learning, especially as it relates to communities who are incarcerated. Students will engage with the theory and currently identified best practices for educative partnering with people in prison. Classroom experiences will interrogate the journey from safe spaces to brave spaces, while introducing strategies for developing anti-oppression, non-hierarchical classrooms.

Course Synopsis and Objectives

Course Synopsis

This team-taught course draws on the expertise of a variety of transnational activists, as well as Knox and outside faculty; and is overseen by one coordinating-integrating professor. Topics covered include a variety of methodological approaches to activism: from environmental justice activism to prison abolition to the role of the arts and humanities as agents for change. We explore the power and limits of Peace and Social Justice resistance (s). The course is one of two required courses for the Peace and Justice Minor. 

Student Learning Goals:

  1. Understand “how-to” concepts of organizing effective human-powered resistance across a range of sociopolitical topics.
  2. Map out the norms, patterns, language, and beliefs prevalent in activist paradigms.
  3. Possess a basic grasp of resistance across sociopolitical topics.
  4. Design an explicit activist campaign or ethnographic project that recognizes the nuances, strengths, weaknesses, and contradictions in Peace and Social Justice resistance.

 INSIDE-OUTSIDE EDUCATION (PJST 211-1 )

Class Meeting Time: 3S Period T/R (10:40 a.m. to 12:25 p.m.)

OLD MAIN 301

 Professor:  Leanne Trapedo Sims

          Telephone: 309-341-7835 office

           Email: ltrapedosims@knox.edu

         Office Hours:   R: 4-6 pm and by appointment: Borzello 128 

Course Description
Drawing on theories of critical pedagogy and critical race, this course will use the text Turning Teaching Inside Out: A Pedagogy of Transformation for Community-based Education to explore community-based learning, especially as it relates to communities who are incarcerated. Students will engage with the theory and currently identified best practices for educative partnering with people in prison. Classroom experiences will interrogate the journey from safe spaces to brave spaces, while introducing strategies for developing anti-oppression, non-hierarchical classrooms.