“Reading it, we learn so much about the power of writing, about teaching, about what education makes possible, and about the urgent human capacity to define who we are.”
Mike Rose, author of Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education
Deborah Appleman is the Hollis L. Caswell Professor of Educational Studies and director of the Summer Writing Program at Carleton College. She also contributes to Carleton’s American Studies program. Professor Appleman’s recent research has focused on teaching college-level language and literature courses at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater.
Her most recent book, Words No Bars Can Hold: Literacy Learning in Prison chronicles her teaching experiences in prison and argues for the importance of liberal arts education for the incarcerated.
Deborah Appleman is the Hollis L. Caswell Professor of Educational Studies and director of the Summer Writing Program at Carleton College. She also contributes to Carleton’s American Studies program. Professor Appleman’s recent research has focused on teaching college-level language and literature courses at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater. Her most recent book, Words No Bars Can Hold: Literacy Learning in Prison chronicles her teaching experiences in prison and argues for the importance of liberal arts education for the incarcerated.
Professor Appleman taught high school English for nine years before receiving her doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She was also a visiting professor at Syracuse University and at the University of California, Berkeley. She works regularly with high school teachers and students, both nationally and internationally and is a frequent keynote speaker. Professor Appleman continues to teach creative writing and college level classes to the incarcerated. She is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books on literacy instruction, which can be found here.
Recent Blogs by Deborah Appleman
Before I Was Anything
“Before I Was Anything” A Poem by Zeke Caligiuri Before I was anything I was an abstraction, sound waves moving through glycerin. Before the effigies of my generation in orange jumpsuits started tattooing cuffs on their wrists, bars on their hearts, I was a red jumpsuit running under evergreens on the
Sticks and Stones, Essays from Incarcerated Students
We’ve all heard the saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names may never harm me.” Yet most of us have experienced the power of language to harm us. For one of my prison classes, I instructed the incarcerated students to write a personal essay of two to three typewritten or 3-4 handwritten
Walking the Tightrope Between Jail and College
At 7:30 AM on a still cold March morning, I wait inside the entrance of an urban public high school, with Patrick, a ninth-grade English teacher on one side of me and a security guard on the other. We are waiting for the arrival of Eli, my formerly incarcerated student, who has agreed to spend
Before I Was Anything
“Before I Was Anything” A Poem by Zeke Caligiuri Before I was anything I was an abstraction, sound waves moving through glycerin. Before the effigies of my generation in orange jumpsuits started tattooing cuffs on their wrists, bars on their hearts, I was a red jumpsuit running under evergreens on the
Sticks and Stones, Essays from Incarcerated Students
We’ve all heard the saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names may never harm me.” Yet most of us have experienced the power of language to harm us. For one of my prison classes, I instructed the incarcerated students to write a personal essay of two to three typewritten or 3-4 handwritten
Listen to Deborah Appleman on Superior Reads
Professor Appleman taught high school English for nine years before receiving her doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She was also a visiting professor at Syracuse University and at the University of California, Berkeley. She works regularly with high school teachers and students, both nationally and internationally and is a frequent keynote speaker. Professor Appleman continues to teach creative writing and college level classes to the incarcerated. She is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books on literacy instruction, which can be found here.