This upcoming spring quarter, Professor Ames Hoffner is teaching WRD 377 Writing and Social Engagement: From Hip Hop to Hashtags. This course is a part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, a program where students have the opportunity to engage in open collaboration and dialogue with incarcerated students at Cook County Jail. Over the quarter, DePaul students will consider incarcerated students their peers, while entering thoughtful discussions about social engagement as it pertains to ongoing, social issues.
Each week, “outside” DePaul students will learn alongside “inside” students. This course is largely discussion-based, so all students will be able to hear from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and insights regarding the class content. Professor Ames Hoffner honors the uniqueness of this experience with two themes: resistance and resilience.
I chose the two themes of resistance and resilience for the course because they lend themselves so well to an experiential class in which we are not only reading but creating our own works of resistance and resilience. A jail is a place that is created to limit people’s freedom: when we come together to dialogue and learn, however, we can find ways to create community and embrace the promises of liberatory education while we work to dismantle systems of injustice.
Students will be engaging with a wide range of texts, from hip-hop lyrics, open letters from writers such as James Baldwin and Ta Nehisi-Coates, and hashtag campaigns across the world. Professor Ames Hoffner will also encourage students to keep her up to date on current social media campaigns and artists that are relevant today. The intersection of old and current texts will allow students to see the continued use of resistance and resilience and how these concepts apply to perennial issues. Students will reflect on these texts by answering questions like: How have these texts shaped our culture? Do they promote social change?
This course is a great way to experience learning uniquely, while also building relationships with those who you may not get the chance to otherwise. This experience could open new passions and doors for students, just like it did for Professor Ames Hoffner.
I taught adult literacy and GED as a volunteer instructor in Division 10 of Cook County Jail. That experience was life-changing for me. I knew that I wanted to combine my love of teaching and learning with my commitment to social and educational justice. For me, that has meant working towards ensuring that everyone has access to education, particularly higher education.
If you’d like to take this course, please email cameshof@depaul.edu to schedule an interview and be approved for enrollment.