Want to get involved with CMU PEP? Enroll for Spring 2025!
Registration opens Monday, Nov. 18.
79-266: Russian History and Revolutionary Socialism
Spring 2025
Professor: Wendy Goldman
This course covers an epic set of events in Russian history from the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 to the death of Stalin in 1953. Spanning almost a century of upheaval and transformation, it examines the revolutions in 1905 and 1917, the Civil War, the ruthless power struggles of the 1920s, the triumph of Stalin, the costly industrialization and collectivization drives, the Great Terror, and the battle against fascism in World War II. It ends with the death of Stalin and the beginning of a new era of reform.
76-236: The American Novel: Our Worlds and Other Worlds
Spring 2025
Professor: Jeffrey Williams
The course will survey American literature from early works such as "Rip van Winkle" and others by Melville and Rebecca Harding Davis, up to contemporary works by authors such as Octavia Butler and Colson Whitehead.
These courses will be taught at Somerset State Correctional Institution, Fridays 2:30-5:10. Students will travel together on a bus leaving at 12:30 p.m. from CMU and returning at 6:50 p.m.
CMU Prison Education Project
Carnegie Mellon University's Prison Education Project (CMU PEP) is committed to bringing education into prison, offering new opportunities to inmates and CMU students, and building dialogue across class, racial and social lines.
Prisons play a key role in the U.S. economy and incarceration rates in the U.S. surpass those of any country in the world. We need to learn more about our prison system: what its origins are, whose interests it serves, and how it compares with systems of incarceration in other countries.
Based on the philosophy of Inside-Out, a nationwide prison education program, CMU PEP offers several courses each academic year within nearby prisons. Faculty and CMU students travel together by bus to and from the prison once a week. Each course, which combines CMU students and inmates, provides full credit to CMU and incarcerated students and follows a regular CMU curriculum. CMU students should register for PEP courses through normal channels and will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire, which professors will review to determine eligibility.
2024-2025 CMU PEP Courses
Fall 2024
85-201: Psychology and Society
Professor: Kody Manke-Miller
Psychology and Society focuses on how knowledge of psychology can improve our lives and society, in domains from health to relationships to education to intergroup interactions and more. This course will be largely discussion-based, with readings, reading quizzes and brief written reflections. Students will use the things they learn about psychology to suggest ways to improve problems that they care about.
76-245: Shakespeare: Tragedies and Histories
Professor: Stephen Wittek
In the closing decades of the 16th century, cultural producers in early modern London began to develop a new commercial venture called 'playing': a business that offered ordinary people a few hours of dramatic entertainment for the price of one penny. More than four hundred years later, the drama of that period now ranks among the most esteemed texts in all English literature, and the name 'Shakespeare' has become a by word for literary genius. This course will offer an overview of Shakespeare's tragedies and histories, what they meant to audiences then, and how they influence us today.
Fall 2024 courses take place on Friday afternoons at Somerset State Correctional Institution. Students and faculty will travel by bus together. The bus leaves at 12:30 and returns around 7 p.m.
Spring 2025
79-266: Russian History and revolutionary socialism
Professor: Wendy Goldman
This course covers an epic set of events in Russian history from the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 to the death of Stalin in 1953. Spanning almost a century of upheaval and transformation, it examines what happened when workers and peasants tried to build a new society built on social justice and economic equality. Learn about Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and other revolutionary leaders. The course surveys the revolutions in 1917, the Civil War and the Red victory, the ruthless power struggles of the 1920s, the triumph of Stalin, the costly industrialization and collectivization drives, the Great Terror, and the battle against fascism in World War II. It ends with the death of Stalin and the beginning of a new era of reform.
76-236: The American Novel: Our Worlds and Other Worlds
Professor: Jeffrey Williams
The course will survey American literature from early works such as "Rip van Winkle" and others by Melville and Rebecca Harding Davis, up to contemporary works by authors such as Octavia Butler and Colson Whitehead.
The course will be taught at Somerset State Correctional Institution, Fridays 2:30-5:10. Students will travel together on a bus leaving at 12:30 p.m. from CMU and returning at 6:50 p.m.
Browse the CMU PEP Course Archive
2024-2025 PEP Speaker Series
Doing Transnational Justice: Lessons from Incarceration Nations Network
Wednesday, Sept. 18, 4:30 to 6 p.m., The Johnstone Room (Posner 234)Read full event description
Prison Book Bannings: The Fight Against Censorship
Monday, Sept. 30, 6 to 8 p.m., Carnegie Public Library Lecture Hall & Livestream
Read the full event description
Student Experiences
"Being a part of [this] course [...] was one of the most unique and rewarding experiences I’ve had at CMU, as I was able to engage in profound discussions with people I do not normally interact with on a daily basis — students who were ostensibly so different from myself but filled with compassion and expressed just as much enthusiasm, if not more, for psychology as I did. I found this course to be irreplaceable by any other traditional college class, providing a distraction-free learning experience where we could all come together and dive deep into the material [and] openly share our thoughts with one another [...] In short, this experience both challenged my naive assumptions surrounding people who are incarcerated and also helped shape how I think about psychology and education in general."
— Amor, Junior, Triple Major in Statistics, Psychology and Decision Science
"I cannot begin to express how much [this course] was appreciated. I always looked forward to Fridays, not only because I was getting off the housing unit and going to school, but mainly because the professor and the CMU students treated me and the other inmates like real people."
— Brandon, SCI Somerset
"This program gave me an amazing opportunity to expose myself to people with different life experiences than mine. It's not every day you get the chance to communicate across difference in this way, especially in a setting where the goal is to learn with each other. It's been an inclusive and inspiring learning experience that I'm grateful was a part of my time here."
— Camille, Junior, Double Major, Psychology and Decision Science
"The CMU Prison Education Project was one of the most influential experiences I have ever had. I have never been in a class with more engaging, perceptive and dedicated students, and this program entirely changed my relationship with education and learning. The CMU Prison Education Project is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I could not recommend this course more."
— Rowan, Junior, School of Drama
"All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience of the program. It offered an enclave of humanity and higher education within an environment that is often bereft of both. I was challenged by new perspectives, gained useful knowledge of a fascinating topic and developed an interest in further learning. The concepts and ideas sparked by the lectures, readings, discussions and in-class interactions will continue to motivate me toward positive action and success."
— Jacob, SCI Somerset
"Through the CMU Prison Education Program, I have been able to explore different perspectives that I wouldn’t otherwise find on campus. I’ve really enjoyed being able to listen and have deep conversations with people whose life experiences are vastly different from mine."
— Jennifer, Senior, Major, Computer Science
"Being a part of the [CMU Prison Education Project] in my last semester of college is a memory that will stay with me for a very long time. It’s such a unique opportunity for college students, and it has heavily changed my perception on prisons and prison systems. The inside students I spent time with were some of the most passionate students I’ve ever met, and I loved that we could learn so much from each other just by being in each other’s presence."
— Catherine, Senior, Major, Design
"The experience of watching equal numbers of CMU and Somerset Prison students get certificates for completing courses taught this semester was deeply gratifying. Our students were transformed and said so. The prison students were profoundly grateful and said so. The professors were profoundly energized and said so. I've been in higher education for 35 years, and I've never seen anything like it."
— Richard Scheines, Bess Family Dean, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Thank You Cards
Art courtesy of SCI Somerset students
Spring 2023, "Russian History: Game of Thrones" with Prof. Wendy Goldman
Outside of card
Inside of card
Spring 2023, "Psychology, Society and the Human Brain" with Prof. Kody Manke-Miller
Fall 2023, "Major Fiction: Then and Now" with Prof. Jeffrey Williams
Illustration features clues about the novels' plots
The CMU Prison Education Project is funded through the generous support of the dean in Dietrich College, participating academic departments, and the educational labor of participating faculty.