FEPPS

My colleague Tanya Erzen at the University of Puget Sound, together with people incarcerated at the Washington State women's prison,  started a BA program called Freedom Education Project Puget Sound. The first cohort graduated in the summer of 2024—a tremendous group of students. Kelly Lytle Hernández delivered the Commencement address, in its brilliance reflecting the light of these students. She was introduced to the students when I needed a "sub" for my Pacific Northwest/Western History class that I taught in the prison in the Fall of 2023—she "stood in" for me when I was away at the Western History Association Conference, when I had them watch a talk she had given on her book City of Inmates. Students liked her and her work so much that they requested her to give a commencement address—which she did. In 2024 at the WHA—where Kelly was President—I gave a talk about teaching Western history in the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound....links below to talk and slides, plus an article in our alumni magazine Arches on FEPPS. 

Breaking Out: The Place of Western History Inside a Women’s Prison in Washington: talk   |   slides

Arches story