'Behind Bars' Penal Heritage Symposium
A two day Symposium featuring panel talks, breakout cell events, & a prison tour.
The celebritisation of prison life in popular media and ongoing repurposing of decommissioned penal buildings highlights opportunities for innovation, as well as tensions between commercialisation and commemoration.
The Symposium will bring together interdisciplinary perspectives across academia, practice, and the public sphere in an effort to address how penal heritage is used and to further explore the broader implications of penal heritage for society and culture.
The Symposium will establish a global network for future knowledge exchange activities and agenda to ensure penal heritage plays a constructive role in shaping narratives about justice and reform for future generations.
Keynote speakers confirmed;
- Dr Justin Piché, Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa and Researcher with the Carceral Cultures Research Initiative.
- Bev Baker, Head of Collections and Research, National Justice Museum, Nottingham.
Symposium themes;
- Penal heritage for the experience economy
- Public history and education programs for penal heritage learning
- Representing prison narratives and the prison experience
- Exhibiting public and capital punishment
- Repurposing decommissioned penal buildings
- Prisons on screen and as a cultural commodity
- Ethics and human rights when using penal heritage
- Penal reform - past, present and future
Call for abstracts;
We welcome abstracts for paper presentations from practitioners, academics, early career researchers and doctoral students from interdisciplinary fields. These include, but are not limited to: penal heritage, criminology, criminal justice and law, tourism, events, hospitality, sociology, public history, geography, architecture, museums and exhibitions, art and performance, film and media, and consumer behaviour. If you would like to submit a poster abstract, please contact the event organisers to discuss. Abstracts are due by 23 March 2025. Please include author details, title of paper to be presented and be no more than 500 words. Send abstracts and queries to Dr Brianna Wyatt at bwyatt@brookes.ac.uk.
For further details, please visit the Shrewsbury Prison website.
The 'Behind Bars' Penal Heritage Symposium is being funded by Oxford Brookes University. Tickets are free but limited. Please register early to secure your spot. The Symposium is being delivered as part of a knowledge exchange project between Dr Brianna Wyatt (Oxford Brookes University), Dr Rachael Ironside (Robert Gordon University), Dr Craig Wight (Edinburgh Napier University) and Joel Campbell (Cove Group Attractions: Shrewsbury Prison).
Register now