Proposal for Carceral Studies Certificate Approved

On February 6, the Duke University Arts & Sciences Council approved a new Carceral Studies Certificate to be housed at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

At the January 10 meeting of the council, professors James Chappel and Christopher Wildeman presented their proposal for the certificate, Duke Chronicle University Editor Lucas Lin reported.

Formerly, the Sociology of Crime, Law, and Justice concentration within the Sociology major was the only option for undergraduate students interested in studying criminal law. Open to all majors, the new certificate will examine the topic through an interdisciplinary perspective.

The certificate requires students to take a gateway course covering the history of incarceration and confinement, four electives across four departments, and a senior year capstone course.

“The students that we have now — by virtue of how the incarceration rate has changed in the U.S. over the last 60 years — have been tremendously more affected in terms of their daily existence by mass incarceration than many of those of us in older cohorts…There is this deep desire for [some] sort of interdisciplinary engagement in this space.”

— Christopher Wildeman

The Kenan Institute for Ethics has agreed to fund and staff the program through a five-year pilot phase as part of its Prison Engagement Initiative, with Chappel and Wildeman serving as its co-directors.