Fighting the Prison–Industrial Complex: A Call to Communication and Cultural Studies Scholars to Change the World1

Collectively authored by the members of Prison Communication, Activism, Research, and Education (PCARE), an NCA-based group of scholars and activists, this essay argues that the prison–industrial complex has grown into a dire threat to the practices of US democracy. The essay “maps” the crises spawned by the prison–industrial complex and then offers a comprehensive action plan for pursuing new forms of scholarship, pedagogy, and activism. The essay therefore hopes to launch nothing less than a revolution in communication and cultural studies scholarship and a new wave of peace-and-justice activism.     

PCARE epilogue: “the pistol of hope”; or,imprisoned workshop participants respond

Our incarcerated students in the Democratic Communication Workshop at Colorado Correctional Center respond to the PCARE essay. Through these contributions regarding their lived experiences in prison, the men in our workshop pose questions for Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies scholars concerned with confronting the problem of the prison–industrial complex—among these the largely unexamined issues facing families of people who are incarcerated. Amidst the dehumanization of daily life in prison, in the face of a system that treats them as disposable, our students are generous with readers in sharing their reflections, struggles, and hopes.     

Inside Oz: Hyperviolence,Race and Class Nightmares,and the Engrossing Spectacle of Terror

In this essay I analyze the HBO prison drama Oz as a cultural artifact of the current era of rampant incarceration. I argue that Oz's hyperviolent spectacle legitimizes both the expansion of the prison–industrial complex and the continuing prevalence of inhumane prison environments. I also contend that Oz's framing of race and class within a violent spectacle functions as a justification of discriminatory criminal justice practices.     

A Likely Past: Abortion,Social Data,and a Collective Memory of Secrets in 1950s America

This essay analyzes the collective mnemonics embedded in the statistical discourse of Planned Parenthood's 1955 conference, Abortion in the United States. Conferees recalled a culture that was diseased, remembered both through social data on abortion pathology and epidemiology. The essay conceptualizes how to think of social data as a collective memory of secrets that is incumbent to biopower, particularly regarding statistical anonymity as a form of strategic amnesia. Although primarily a study of this conference, the essay notes the broader importance of collective memory and secrecy for the study of biopower.     

美国、挪威、日本监狱图书馆比较研究与借鉴

监狱图书馆是对犯人施行教育和矫正的重要文化设施,也是犯人狱中唯一能够接触到的文化场所。从刑罚模式视角指出监狱图书馆缘起及争议,简单梳理美国、挪威和日本三国监狱图书馆的发展概况、并在对立法情况、主管部门和人员构成进行选择性比较的基础上,总结出影响监狱图书馆发展的政治、经济及文化等因素,并分析其对我国监狱图书馆发展的借鉴意义。     

Making the Most of Our Conferences and Associations: An Important Component for Communication Research,Teaching, and Service

As part of the tradition of outgoing Central States Communication Association Presidents and Executive Directors providing a spotlight column in Communication Studies, I focus on the practical value of academic conferences for the development of knowledge, enhancement of teaching and mentoring practices, and as an outlet for learning about and doing service. Communication is a practical discipline where the research has a potential to make profound and positive differences. The interaction that is allowed at conferences presents an opportunity for communication pedagogy, research, and service to transform in meaningful ways. In addition to practical advice for making the most of a conference experience, some of the most recent developments for CSCA are highlighted. The essay then ends with a personal note.     

Turning Silence into Speech and Action: Prison Activism and the Pedagogy of Empowered Citizenship

Based on almost 50 years of combined experience as prison activists and prison teachers, the authors offer three case studies of prison activism and pedagogy in action. The first case study, by Hartnett, details the “artistry of agency” as enacted in poetry workshops in prison and in public poetry events, thus illustrating artistic communication. The second, by Wood, examines how friendship becomes political in the epistolary communication between free and imprisoned correspondents, thus addressing interpersonal communication. The third, by McCann, addresses web-based communication as a tool for advocacy for condemned prisoner/activists on Texas’s death row, and hence political communication. Taken as a whole, the three case studies celebrate different communication strategies as avenues of enlightenment and empowerment while offering powerful arguments for abolishing the prison–industrial complex.     

Police Media: The Governance of Territory,Speed, and Communication

The work of the modern police apparatus is highly dependent upon media technologies. This article traces crucial developments in this history, analyzing the central role that media have played in policing practices since the advent of the modern patrol in the late eighteenth century. We trace how the governmentalized police force has used media to govern efficiently what Foucault calls the three great variables: territory, speed, and communication. In conclusion, we consider the possibilities for resistance in a time when digital police media have given rise to alarming strategies for surveilling populations, stifling dissent, and exerting control over public and private space.     

Libraries Without Walls

Abstract

An internship in a prison library provides excellent training both in basic library services and in dealing with under-served populations. This type of internship, one that imparts an alternate view of librarianship, provides an understanding of how organizations work and develops professional integrity and supervisory skills. A prison internship experience has wide application in the library field, grounding students firmly in customer service and library instruction skills.     

旅顺监狱里的安重根

朝鲜爱国志士安重根击毙日本前首相伊藤博文后,被辗转押往旅顺监狱,由此与旅顺监狱产生了千丝万缕的联系。旅顺监狱的建造是帝国主义列强侵华的铁证,在这里曾经关押和杀害过众多爱国志士。安重根刺杀日本前首相伊藤博文后,由于种种原因也被押往旅顺监狱,在旅顺监狱处刑室被处以绞刑。     

May It Please the Court: Law Students and Legal Research Instruction in Prison Law Libraries

According to the administrative office of the U.S. Courts, a significant part of the present docket of federal district courts consists of prisoner litigation. This category of litigation, composed largely of habeas corpus petitions, civil rights suits, and suits related to prison conditions, is often pressed by prisoners whose only legal assistance is the resources and materials available in their prison law library. Although prisoner litigation is an essential means of ensuring that our prisons and criminal justice systems operate within the confines of the U.S. Constitution, these often poorly researched and poorly written lawsuits also present special challenges to the federal courts tasked with processing them. This article explores how establishing programs that involve law students in teaching legal research in prison law libraries could help to both ameliorate the burdens that prisoner litigation places on the federal court system and improve prison law libraries’ ability to provide prisoners with meaningful access to the courts. The article begins by discussing the history of prisoner litigation in federal courts and describes four models of legal research instruction and assistance that have been employed in prisons. Based on the lessons learned from these efforts, the article presents a proposal for a prison legal research clinic that could be established by interested law schools and their librarians, and discusses the benefits to law students, prisoners, and the courts that such a program has the potential to deliver.     

沈阳二战盟军战俘营医院旧址考析

本文通过盟军战俘的日记、回忆录、历史图片、美国档案馆解密的官方文件等一手史料,对沈阳二战盟军战俘营医院的设立、管理制度、医疗条件等内容进行了历史考证,力求还原历史的本来面目,探究沈阳二战盟军战俘营医院旧址的历史价值和现实意义,为沈阳二战盟军战俘营医院旧址的保护、利用和宣传提供必要的理论支撑。     

From California to Michigan: Race,Rationality, and Neoliberal Governmentality

In this essay, we examine recent developments in battles over race- and gender-based affirmative action across a 10-year period from the California Civil Rights Initiative (1996) to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (2006). While affirmative action policies have historically been contested within a paradigm of redistribution, our analysis of the Michigan case suggests a new strategic emphasis on disputing the legitimacy of the state's recognition of social difference. Drawing on the work of critical race and critical rhetoric scholars, as well as social theory on citizenship in the post-soul moment, we argue that a neoliberal understanding of difference and neoliberalism's appropriations of multiculturalism have allowed the anti-affirmative action movement in Michigan to avoid racist appeals completely by invoking the neoliberal myth of free, entrepreneurial individuals against a meddling, inefficient, authoritarian state. Further, we find that these shifts have permitted assaults on the positive consideration of gender—a strategy that was not possible when debates were centered over competing claims of racism. Finally, we argue that these strategic adjustments since California have enabled the anti-affirmative action movement to discursively align itself with contemporary neoliberal assaults on a range of social and cultural rights.     

“Putting Patients First”: Systematically Distorted Communication and Merck's Marketing of Vioxx

An estimated 27,000-60,000 patients died while taking Merck's drug Vioxx between 2000 and 2004. This essay uses Deetz's treatment of systematically distorted communication and Nilsen's significant choice to analyze Merck's communication about the drug. The company claimed publicly to be forthright about Vioxx's safety. The article shows, however, that Merck systematically distorted communication through neutralization, topical avoidance, and disqualification in ways that thwarted physicians' and patients' abilities to make an informed choice about Vioxx. The analysis shows that Merck employees' consent to economic priorities framed these communication practices as legitimate and rational within the organization. The same practices, however, appeared socially irresponsible to members of the scientific community outside the company. In contrast to Merck's practices, the essay offers more participatory communication applications that uphold companies' moral obligation to their stakeholders.     

Libraries,Mobile Devices,and the Visible College

Bryan Alexander described the digital environment that we live in, giving an extensive overview of the current state of interactive devices, particularly mobile devices, which are moving us beyond the personal computer. He covered recent major developments that have transformed the world in surprising ways in a rather short period of time. The world of apps is further expanding what these devices can do, also bringing with them more challenges to individual privacy. Gaming and augmented reality are becoming deeply embedded in much of what we do. Alexander laid out four possible futures that these contemporary developments could lead to.     

“We Do It, but They Don't”: Multiple Categorizations and Work Team Communication

The present study adopted an intergroup approach to information sharing and ratings of work team communication in a public hospital (N = 142) undergoing large-scale restructuring. Consistent with predictions, ratings of communication followed a double ingroup serving bias: while team members reported sending about the same levels of information to double ingroup members (same work team/same occupational group) as they did to partial ingroup members (same work team/different occupational group), they reported receiving less information from partial ingroup members than from double ingroup members and rated the communication that they received from partial ingroup members as less effective. We discuss the implication of these results for the management of information sharing and organizational communication.     

A Media Sociology for the Networked Public Sphere: The Hierarchy of Influences Model

We have promoted a hierarchy of influences model for understanding the complex factors shaping media—particularly news—content: from the individual to social-system level. Meanwhile, technology-enabled changes in the media eco-system have shifted old boundaries and encouraged new, more spatially oriented concepts, such as fields and networks. In this essay we revisit our levels-of-analysis perspective, which in the historical context of communication research was a response to the media effects paradigm, and incorporate within the model examples from recent research. We argue that the hierarchical of influences can still take into account new realignments of media and other forces. Emerging spaces in the network public sphere may not fit as easily into the once familiar professional, organizational, and institutional containers, but the new media configurations supporting these spaces must still be understood with reference to a larger framework of power.     

Making settler colonialism concrete: agentive materialism and habitational violence in Palestine

ABSTRACT

Through home sealing in Palestine, the Israeli state utilizes the agentive materialism and political valence of concrete as settler colonial state building tools. By rendering the home uninhabitable, the walls of the home are transformed into border walls, while the sealed home rhetorically functions as a relic of collective punishment. Home sealing is an expression of the Israeli state's permanent anxiety surrounding Palestinian compositional power. This essay demonstrates the urgency for approaching settler-colonial state logics through a lens rooted in decolonial approaches to materialist rhetoric and rhetorical studies of space and place.