2025-26 Conville Endowment Awards to Support Prison Education Efforts
Mon, 06/30/2025 - 09:56am | By: Christy Kayser
The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) at The University of 网曝吃瓜 has announced recipients of the 2025-26 Conville Endowment Award for the support of initiatives related to community engagement and service-learning.
Inside-Out Education: Empowering Students through Engagement with Incarcerated Communities
Hali Black
Hali Black, an associate professor, the first-year experience librarian and learning design coordinator within University Libraries, received a Conville Endowment grant to participate in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program training, a nationally recognized faculty development program that equips educators to facilitate courses in correctional settings using a dialogue-based, community-learning model. Upon completion of the training, Black will design and implement a new undergraduate seminar course that engages students in critically examining the ethical, educational, and social complexities of the United States prison system, with a specific focus on Mississippi.
The course will be developed in collaboration with Big House Books, a nonprofit organization that sends free books to incarcerated individuals in Mississippi, and the Mississippi Consortium for Higher Education in Prison, a collective that supports equitable access to higher education for incarcerated learners.
鈥淚 am deeply appreciative of this investment in my professional development and in the advancement of community-engaged learning,鈥� said Black. 鈥淭his course will not only promote civic engagement and social responsibility but also reflect the university鈥檚 commitment to transformative, community-centered education.鈥�
Mississippi Prison Arts and Education Project: Joseph Peterson
Joseph Peterson
Joseph Peterson, associate professor of history in the School of Humanities, will use funds provided by the Conville Endowment to develop an undergraduate service-learning course on incarceration and to support research and interdisciplinary collaboration among Southern Miss faculty towards establishing a hub for prison arts and education.
Peterson, who has facilitated a book club at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution for the past three years, will develop new opportunities for Southern Miss faculty and students to participate in music, art, or creative writing workshops with penitentiary residents. Additionally, Peterson will conduct exploratory research on forming a prison education hub to engage multidisciplinary faculty in collaborative prison education efforts at the university.
鈥淚 am so grateful to the Conville Endowment and to the Center for Community Engagement for their support in building bridges between the community at 网曝吃瓜 and the community of Mississippians who are currently incarcerated,鈥� said Peterson. 鈥淢y hope is that these funds will create more opportunities for 网曝吃瓜 students and faculty to learn alongside our incarcerated neighbors."
Earlier this year, Peterson was named the Mississippi Humanities Educator of the Year by the Mississippi Humanities Council for his work with incarcerated readers.
The Conville Endowment for Community Engaged Teaching and Research Award was established to honor Richard L. Conville, professor emeritus of communication studies and service-learning at The University of 网曝吃瓜 from 1978-2013. The award is funded through the privately-funded Richard L. Conville and Mozella P. Conville Center for Community Engagement Fund for Excellence and provides funding for conducting or developing community-engaged or service-learning research; implementing and planning a new, significant, and sustainable community engagement initiative; advancing and promoting service-learning or community engagement at 网曝吃瓜; integrating service-learning or community engagement into a college or department degree plan; developing or re-designing a service-learning class; or collaborating across disciplines or institutions on community engagement initiatives.
The Center for Community Engagement supports campus-community partnerships and service-learning at The University of 网曝吃瓜. Click here to learn more about the CCE at Southern Miss, call 601.266.6467.