September 21, 2018
Student Senate is excited to announce this year’s speaker for the annual Poitras Gleim lecture will be Piper Kerman!
Kerman is known for her strong passion for prison and criminal justice reform and will be speaking on the topic of gender and sexuality in America's Prisons. The lecture will be held September 21, 2018, at 7 pm in ATS. Tickets are available here.
Please email SLCE for any questions regarding tickets.
The Waidner-Spahr Library will host a book signing with the author immediately following the onstage lecture.
Kerman is the author of the bestselling memoir “Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison,” which inspired the award-winning Netflix hit show, “Orange is the New Black”. Kerman’s memoir details the 13 months she spent in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, after a brief involvement with drug trafficking sent her to prison on money-laundering charges. In her book, Kerman explores the experience of incarceration and the lives of the women she met in prison, writing about their friendships, families, mental illnesses, substance abuse issues, cliques and codes of behavior.
Since her release, Kerman has worked to promote prison and criminal justice reform. She works with a number of nonprofits and philanthropic organizations, including serving on the board of directors of the Women’s Prison Association and the advisory boards of the PEN America Writing For Justice Fellowship, InsideOUT Writers, Healing Broken Circles and JustLeadershipUSA. Kerman has been called as a witness by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights to testify on solitary confinement and women prisoners, and by the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security Committee to testify about the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Currently, Kerman teaches writing in two state prisons as an affiliate instructor with Otterbein University in Ohio.
Involved in a wide range of programs and causes, Kerman frequently speaks to students of law, criminology, gender and women’s studies, sociology and creative writing. Her work also includes addressing groups like the National Conference of State Legislatures and the International Association of Women Judges.
Kay Gleim Poitras ’53 and Edward Poitras endowed the lecture “to challenge the imagination of Dickinson students and faculty in discovering interesting individuals who cross traditional professional and disciplinary boundaries.” The lectureship intends to bring a speaker of national or international renown to address a topic outside of their known area of expertise.
We look forward to welcoming Piper Kerman to our campus!
Dickinson College Student Senate
Contact: senate@dickinson.edu
Further information
- Location:
- Time: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
- Cost: Free