ACEA- Reintegration Puzzle conference

I got confirmation today that I will be speaking at the ACEA-Reintegration Puzzle conference in Perth, WA on prisoner learning. I am very excited! I now have two presentations of my research this year - although obviously I am not presenting the whole lot to them both - focussing on barriers for the ACEA conference and on informal learning for the Critical Criminology conference.

Preparations are going well for the National Conference on Australian Prison Issues, I think I have all the speakers confirmed now and will finalise the agenda this week.

I hand in my methodology chapter next week and I have started working on the ethics review forms and documents. I have amassed so much literature over the past two years, that the literature review feels like a massive undertaking and I am procrastinating a bit with actually getting everything in order and into Endnote - but it must be done - and there is soooo much reading, never mind the notetaking and synthesis. Big job!

National Conference on Australian Prison Issues

Today I went to visit the venue at Deakin University and also began finalising the list of speakers of the event. So far we have A. Professor Peter Norden A.O., Professor Rob White, Dr. Debra Smith from the Bridge Foundation, Greg Barns, Andrea Kincade, Mike Fitzgerald, and Kerry Cotterill. I am really excited about the event as it's coming together really well.

I have also been working on a couple of assignments for my Graduate Certificate in Criminology which I am studying at Charles Sturt University. This semester I am doing two units - Psychology and Law and Criminological Practice. I think this study will really add depth to my PhD and hope to continue to a Masters alongside the PhD. This semester I am also working on a methodology chapter and next semester working on ethics approval and the literature review. I am really excited about this, although I know that it will be a long road!

The turns of life

Well, I originally started to experiment with blogs to understand how they could be used in learning and to keep a record of my journey through life. But I never really caught the bug so to speak. But I think that possibly if I used it to record my PhD process and to blog about my passion which is prison, then I might actually use it!

Since my last blog ages and ages ago (feels like a lifetime!) I have embarked on prison research, initially for my honours thesis in adult and vocational education. My title was 'Learning on the Inside in Risdon Prison'. This research has led to me starting a non profit organisation www.australianprisonfoundation.webs.com and now we are working on the first National Conference on Australian Prison Issues for October 21st, 2009 at Deakin University, Melbourne www.prisonissuesconference.webs.com.

We ran a successful competition on prisoner library services and would like to create resources to send to prisons in Australia to encourage prisoners to use their library. Our new campaign is focussed on indigenous imprisonment www.16times.webs.com.

I have also been invited to talk about my research at the Australian Critical Criminology Conference in Melbourne http://arts.monash.edu.au/psi/news-and-events/critical-criminology/index.php which I am really excited about.

My PhD will focus on stakeholder perspectives of prisoner learning.