The Women, Writing and Incarceration Project (WWIP) was formed through a School for New Learning class taught by Professor Ann Folwell Stanford at DePaul University. This class developed out of the "Windows to Freedom" library program at Cook County Jail, which was begun by community activists in 1996. Stanford conducted creative writing workshops with this program from its inception, and occasionally brought students to volunteer with her. From this, Stanford developed the idea for the WWIP class at DePaul, which was proposed in 2001. The class was set up to be experiential. By bringing students into the prisons to conduct poetry writing workshops with the female prisoners, the WWIP sought to introduce students to the realities of incarceration for women in the United States as well as to offer incarcerated women a way to "interrupt the official discourse" about them. The class was a quarter long, taught three times a year, and set up as a larger project so that interested students could become "Project Associates" and activists. The class was offered from 2001 to 2005.
From the description of The Women, Writing and Incarceration Project records, 1995-2005. (DePaul University). WorldCat record id: 746218307
