Incarceration Nations Network, an organization founded by BPI’s Senior Advisor for Global Initiatives, Baz Dreisinger, is hiring five global educators for the Chaz Zachary Global Teaching Fellowship, named for a beloved Prison-to-College Pipeline student who transitioned last year. Educators in any country are welcome… Read More
Program: National Engagement
Augustana College joins the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison
Earlier this year, BPI proudly announced its newest member of the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison: the Augustana Prison Education Program (APEP). BPI launched the Consortium in 2009 to facilitate the further establishment of college-in-prison nationwide. The Consortium currently represents fourteen colleges… Read More
Film Screening: “Education Not Incarceration”
Bard Prison Initiative Consortium For the Liberal Arts In Prison Film Screening: "Education Not Incarceration" BPI is proud to kick off a new partnership with Incarceration Nations Network and the Open Society University Network, which supports educational projects in carceral spaces outside of the United… Read More
Become a BPI TAP Advocacy Fellow!
BPI TAP Advocacy Fellowship Overview The Bard Prison Initiative seeks four Fellows for a three-month BPI TAP Advocacy Fellowship. The Fellowship will run from Jan 3, 2022 through April 1, 2022, and offer four BPI alumni or other formerly incarcerated alumni of other college-in-prison programs the… Read More
BPI in Conversation – 50 Years Later: Attica and Its Legacy
Friday, November 19th at 2:30 Please join the BPI community of alumni, students, and staff for a virtual lecture and conversation about Attica 50 years later with Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and… Read More
BPI in Conversation – 50 Years: The Kerner Commission, Mass Incarceration & College-in-Prison
This lunchtime conversation took place on October 27th at 12pm eastern. Author and advocate Reverend Vivian Nixon; MacArthur Fellow, founder of Freedom Reads, and poet Reginald Dwayne Betts Esq; and BPI founder and executive director Max Kenner joined in a conversation moderated by historian Dr.… Read More
Third Annual BPI Summer Residency
It's a wrap! BPI's third Summer Residency has come to a close after three intensive weeks of workshops. The BPI Summer Residency is an intensive cohort-based sequence that takes residents under the hood for hands-on and experiential workshops that explore the hows, whys, and… Read More
Webinar: The Historic Return of Pell Funding for Incarcerated Students and What Comes Next
On March 10th, George Chochos '10, Senior Federal Policy Associate at the Vera Institute of Justice; Rev. Vivian Nixon, Executive Director of College & Community Fellowship; and Max Kenner '01, Executive Director of BPI joined this webinar to discuss the historical restoration of Pell… Read More
#TurnOnTheTAPNY Legislative Briefing
On February 25th BPI joined with College and Community Fellowship and colleagues in the field of college-in-prison to discuss with legislators and staffers the importance of restoring eligibility for NY's Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to incarcerated students in New York State. Click here to… Read More
Their Stories Helped Lift a 26-Year Ban on Pell Grants for Prisoners
A college education transformed [formerly incarcerated people's] lives. But some critics fear low-quality programs will rush in. Every time Vivian D. Nixon has publicly testified about the power of a college education to transform the lives of those behind bars, she’s drawn attention to one… Read More