TAKE ACTION - Study Stories
There are many and varied ways to study the issues raised by the book and the play, Dead Man Walking. Below are just a few examples taken from past participants. Please contact us with your study stories.
Field Trips
Several schools have explored the realities of our criminal justice system through field trips to prisons. "Dead Man Walking" cast members from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, spent their spring break in Louisiana, which included a day-long tour of Angola Prison. There they had lunch in the death row unit and visited the "death house,” including the chamber where the lethal injection is administered. (Read article in the Quinnipiac Magazine, Summer 2006.)
The guard who accompanied them into this room commented to a colleague later that this was a very unusual tour group, stating, "Why, there were some students who actually had tears in their eyes when they entered the room. I've never observed such a reaction from other groups."
The cast from Western Michigan University visited their state's oldest prison in Jackson, Michigan. Through meeting some of the inmates and experiencing the inside of the prison they gained a better sense of the human experience of imprisonment. The prison administration invited the cast back to present the second act of the play to 200 selected inmates. The experience was memorable for all – cast, inmates, and administration. "They were the best audience we ever had!" commented one of the cast members.
Book Clubs
Club members are reading Sister Helen's first book, "Dead Man Walking," or are delving into her new book, "The Death of Innocents," which provides powerful human stories as well as an analysis of the justice and court systems. Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado, is a distinguished example of this trend with at least 21 known book clubs representing more than 800 readers. The smallest of these clubs comprises six men who golf together.
Campus Convocations
The University of Mary in Bismark, N.D., organized its monthly all-campus convocations as an extension of its commitment to study the death penalty from many perspectives: from examining the state constitution's stance on the death penalty to hearing from victim's rights advocates to meeting Sister Helen Prejean at the February 2006 convocation.
Interdisciplinary Studies
The College of Mount St. Joseph in Patchogue, New York, is a stellar example of expanding the discourse on the death penalty to a wide array of academic departments and campus organizations. Some of the departments active in studying the issue include English, psychology, social science, speech and communication, religious studies, and art.
Professors in many departments agreed to assign the book, "Dead Man Walking," as required reading for their classes. Student clubs actively engaged in the project were the Art Club, Freshman Humanities Committee, Social Science Club, and Student Government Services and Officers. Various campus institutes were also involved in the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project, the Institute for Civic Engagement, Institute for the Study of Religion in Community Life, as well as the Campus Ministries office as well as the offices of the president and campus administration. This broad alliance provided a powerful model of cooperation around a major social issue of our country.
Planners of the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project at Jesuit High School in Portland "pledge to do everything we could to make our production the center of something much greater." They invited the faculty to join them "in linking this story, your curriculum, and this year's school-theme, in an exploration of the ways we can all be committed to doing justice." They provided ideas about ways the production of "Dead Man Walking," could intersect with the curricula. You may find this document from Jesuit High School helpful for your own planning.
|
|
"Dead Man Walking"cast members from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, spent their spring break in Louisiana, which included a day-long tour of Angola Prison.
|
|
|
