Global Justice Series
November 14, 2012 at 07:00 PM
Global Justice Series
An interdisciplinary focus on issues of social justice around the world
Living Life on Life’s Terms:
Women’s Narratives of Life After Prison
Wed., November 14, 2012
7 p.m., KCC, Oak Park River Forest Room
Featuring:
Dr. Andrea Leverentz, Associate Professor
Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Boston Mass.
Dr. Leverentz will discuss how women coming out of prison negotiate competing
messages of who they are, who they should be, and how they should live their lives.
Dr. Leverentz uses a symbolic interactionist approach to understand how the women
redefine themselves as desisting ex-offenders, while also attempting to remain
faithful to their other social roles and relationships. Drawing on qualitative interviews
with female ex-prisoners and members of their social networks, Dr. Leverentz analyzes
the narratives they use to describe and define their lives as the women reenter society
from prison and a halfway house stay.