Prison Studies Certificate
Program Code: D-PRISON-C
Degree Designation: Certificate
Department: Divinity School
Website: divinity.duke.edu/academics/certificates/prison
Program Summary
The Certificate in Prison Studies provides students with the opportunity to engage specifically with people in prison and the system that imprisons them in the context of theological education and formation for ministry (see Matthew 25:36).
Academic Requirements
This certificate can normally be earned within the residential MDiv, MTS, and ThD degree programs.
Requirements for MDivR & MTS Students
1 core prison course, PARISH 809 or PARISH 719.
Project TURN course, taught on-site in a local prison.
1 additional course approved by the director that addresses questions relevant to prison studies (for example, treating approaches to justice, atonement, race, gender, conflict, or contextual ministry). A comprehensive list of elective courses is available to students in the degree audit system. An appropriate directed study approved by the certificate director may be substituted for this requirement.
MDivR only: Suitable field education placement.
MDivR only: Designated prison-oriented spiritual formation group, or, on petition, completing an approved research project.
MTS only: Thesis that focuses on some aspect of prison studies that (1) takes the voices of incarcerated people (past or present) seriously and (2) views the prison as a site of significant learning and investigation.
Requirements for THD Students
2 courses related to carceral studies. These courses can be in any department and may be directed studies. Options include any course that the student believes will advance their knowledge in the fields of prisons, pathways to prisons, criminal or restorative justice, alternatives to addressing social harm, or the race, class, gender, and sexuality biases in and impacts on policing and incarceration. Creative learning around theologies that acknowledge Jesus as a policed, sentenced, and executed person, carceral themes in the Bible, the Christian history of complicity with and resistance to incarceration, etc, are encouraged. Demonstrate relevance to the certificate director for pre-approval.
Service as teaching assistant for 1 Project TURN class, taught inside of a local NC prison comprising half Duke students and half students incarcerated at the facility under the leadership of a Duke professor. Alternatives include attendance in a TURN course or the approved equivalent.
Significant research project related to carceral studies. This might be an article-length final project for a class, a presentation at an academic conference, a published journal article, a dedicated exam in carceral studies with attendant reading list, or significant inclusion of carceral themes in the dissertation.