In this episode of Heart to Hustle, my former professor Mneesha Gellman, an influential figure in education and social justice, explains how her lifelong activism led her to found the Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI), a program at Emerson College dedicated to bringing higher education to incarcerated individuals at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Norfolk (MCI Norfolk). Drawing on her extensive experience in education and advocacy, Mneesha discusses overcoming challenges like technological barriers in prisons and outdated curricula in schools, offering innovative strategies that empower marginalized communities and drive meaningful change. She also highlights how providing higher education in prisons transforms lives and reinforces the mission that education is a fundamental right for all, paving the way for societal reintegration and lasting reform.

About Mneesha Gellman: Mneesha Gellman is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, at Emerson College, Boston, USA. Her research interests include comparative democratization, cultural resilience, memory politics, and social movements in the Global South and the United States. She is also the founder and Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which brings a BA pathway to incarcerated students in Massachusetts.

About the Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI): Emerson College launched the Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) in 2017 at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord (MCI-Concord), a men’s medium-security prison. EPI acts on the knowledge that college-in-prison programs can interrupt the cycle of incarceration. EPI offers the same courses taught on Emerson’s main campus, taught by Emerson faculty as well as guest faculty from other local colleges, and bearing official Emerson credits. EPI provides a pathway to an Emerson College Bachelor of Arts in Media, Literature, and Culture, a degree that combines Emerson’s unique strengths in media studies, literary studies, and the liberal arts. 

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