UHCL broadens its reach through partnership with TDCJ
The University of Houston-Clear Lake, in conjunction with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, will be presenting a series of videos done by incarcerated students at the 22nd annual Student Conference for Research and Creative Arts (SCRCA).
Shreerekha Subramanian, associate professor in humanities and one of the sponsors of the SCRCA, has been teaching undergraduate and graduate classes at the W. F. Ramsey Unit for nearly a decade.
Incarcerated students enrolled in Subramanian’s “Ideas in Transition: Love” and “Text Under Sentence” classes will be presenting Thursday, April 21, from 4 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. as part of the SCRCA.
The video symposium titled “Lockdown Love: Roundtable on Ideas of Love in the Humanities,” tells the uplifting and emotional stories of these students. Subramanian states how many people leave having changed, improved or deepened their understanding of who we imprison and what we can do and think about these situations.
“We have had this program as part of our university since 1974 — since the very beginning of UHCL,” Subramanian said. “It is a program with some prestige and history, and the video recording of student presentations show the culmination of the university’s efforts to provide education to all.”
Students and UHCL community members who attend the video presentations will be able to view the intellectual work of an invisible population of the university — the incarcerated student.
The series of recordings took place in December 2015 at the conclusion of the fall semester and highlight the achievements of Subramanian’s undergraduate and graduate students from that semester.
This year’s presentation will also feature video by Michael Brims, assistant professor in communication and digital media studies, who went with Subramanian to record the sessions.
“Working on these videos with Dr. Subramanian was a very humbling experience for me,” Brims said. “I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when we entered the prison, but I was really surprised when the students gave their final presentations for the semester. The quality of their work was outstanding. They would be able to compete with, and most likely outperform, their fellow students on the UHCL campus. I think this an incredibly important program.”
Subramanian explained that the videos shot by Brims were the best quality and most professional she’s ever received in all the years she’s done the presentations.
“Of all the years I have recorded, using minimal resources such as handheld digital devices, this year has yielded without a doubt the best video film,” Subramanian said. “The films have a professional smoothness and elegance to them that makes the recorded testimony all the better.”
The overall goal of the presentations is to offer the students at Ramsey a chance to formally present their intellectual work to the university, and in doing so, become part of the community of the university from where they are earning their degrees.
The symposia will consist of three short films: “Lockdown Love: Roundtable on ideas of Love in the Humanities,” “TDCJ Undergraduates: Interviews and Open Mic” and “Graduate Student Roundtable on Prison Theories and Writings.” All three videos will be held in Room 2237 of the Bayou Building. Admission is free and open to the public.
“Education is an extremely powerful and productive tool to ameliorate the minds, sharpen the intellectual capacity, enhance the sensitivity and overall, improve the lives of incarcerated people,” Subramanian said.
For information, visit http://www.uhcl.edu/researchartsconference or email studentconf@uhcl.edu.
