Rolling up to the Carcere Bollate, the prison that has become the epicenter of Italian prison reform, you can't help but to feel a deep sense of underwhelm. Yep. This is a prison. I’m here to study how cooperatives are used for prisoner rehabilitation. If you are an American who has ever interacted with the carceral system, there is little interest in creating a space for awe, wonder, curiosity, home, or reflection. It is about creating the cheapest warehouse for humans. The Italian prison system is unfortunately modeled on the US carceral system.
Read MoreQueer, working-class, and Catholic, Gab Lisi engages with Pride through Rieger’s deep solidarity—exposing false freedoms and calling for collective liberation for all.
Read MoreAt a time when protest often seems to be the last recourse for those longing for a better world and a more sustainable faith, the Solidarity Circles of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University are designed to expand horizons by constructing and building alternatives. Our approach is wholistic from the outset.
Read MoreIn the next few moments, I want to take a look at the bigger picture of which Barbara’s life reminds us, and to which it testifies. This is the good news: Barbara’s life can make us see a bigger picture and something that is happening in the world, which is bigger than us. I take this to mean that we are never alone, even if it may sometimes feel that way. This is, of course, what Christians believe, but this is also what many other faith traditions tell us. Even people who don’t embrace any particular faith often have an acute sense of something bigger at work than the individual, and many intuitively grasp that we are not alone.
Read MoreWe know that political power is deeply entangled with other forms of power:
cultural, religion, and economic. We are concerned that political power cannot truly change
without changing cultural and religious power, and without the economic strongholds of power
that fund all of these powers.
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