Progress

Well the weeks just seem to fly by. I am in the process of finalising my enrollment into the PhD which is exciting and have confirmed Rob White as a coordinator along with someone from the Faculty of Education, probably John Williamson.

The conference organising is going well with speakers now confirmed after a couple of last minute withdrawals and registrations are continuing to come in - but we need more so I will have to spend some more time marketing the event, particularly within the universities and corrective services.

I have finished preparing my talk for the ACEA/Reintegration Puzzle conference in WA, I am the last speaker on the last day so hopefully everyone will still be awake - if not I will be waking them!! I have also submitted my paper for the Critical Criminology Conference for peer review - fingers crossed they like it as it's the first time I have done something like this.

The last two days have been incredible. I have recently attended the Critical Criminology Conference http://www.arts.monash.edu/psi/news-and-events/critical-criminology/. I presented a paper entitled Outside the Curriculum. The event was an amazing experience, I met and spoke with some of the leading minds in criminology in Australia - Chris Cuneen, Eileen Baldry, Rob White and so many others, it was truly wonderful to have people around who were interested in my research and so supportive and encouraging. I also met one of my criminology teachers from Charles Sturt University which was great. It was fascinating listening to the research of others and I felt a little awestruck at the incredible research that is going on in the field. Rob White has agreed to be a co-supervisor on my PhD which is fantastic news as he is well connected and well respected by Tasmanian Justice agencies.

The two days also made me realise how isolated and potentially isolating distance learning can be and how you miss out on so much informal learning because of the lack of peers and mentors you have around you to talk to. This is something that is very relevant to my research and also something which I need to be more active in addressing as a student.

Indigenous Imprisonment

There is something horribly wrong in Australia, something that is unnoticed by many people like myself - the horrendous over representation of indigenous people in our prison systems. Except for the fact that I study in this area and have an interest I would not have known the shame of what is happening. So I have started a campaign www.16times.webs.com and hope that it catches the hearts and minds of others.

Last week as part of my research I watched a short film Lonely Boy Richard http://www.afc.gov.au/filmsandawards/filmdbsearch.aspx?view=title&title=LAWAND
and I found this great study guide http://www.filmaust.com.au/programs/teachers_notes/8533lonelyboyrichardnotes.pdf which talks more about the issues involved.

We are looking at partnering and discussing this issue with indigenous organisations and the Australian Prison Foundation is putting together a policy document to go with the campaign.

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.

Starting my own business, studying full time and working full time has kept me very busy over the past months - however it has been an exciting journey.