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  Current Students

  CPE students at Cheshire and York Correctional Institutions earn associate degrees through our partnership with CT State Community College, Middlesex and Bachelor of Liberal Studies degrees through Wesleyan itself. The BLS degree program, launched in 2019, is a mark of Wesleyan’s leadership in the field of higher education in prison – helping to transform who liberal arts education is for. Learn More About Our Current Students

  Students take one to four classes at a time, ranging, in recent terms, from “The Gothic and the Sentimental” to “Hinduism in the Epics” to Microeconomics to “Reproduction Issues in the 21st Century.” Students participate in study halls, partnering with peer teaching assistants from Wesleyan’s campus and exploring the library resources available on individual, non-networked laptops. Bachelor of Liberal Studies students pair with a faculty advisor, to benefit from intense engagement with an academic mentor as they shape and progress through their individualized plans of study.

  Wesleyan’s creative, rigorous, pragmatic liberal education fosters personal development and social responsibility while empowering students to shape a changing world. The Wesleyan Center for Prison Education curriculum does, too. 

  "In returning to school as an adult, my interest in knowledge sparked a dedication that was absent before. I strive for excellence and look forward to showing my potential in every assignment I turn in. When someone in my class has a question outside of the classroom setting, I am happy to help them understand the information we learned during the semester. I feel better as a person helping people, and never felt I had the opportunity to make a difference in my own life before Wesleyan, much less anyone else’s." - Current CPE BLS Student

  “To be able to write, to be able to read, you know, Moby Dick or Cervantes, or Shakespeare, you're able to go into a whole other world that's no longer between the four walls.” -CPE alumna

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  Faculty

  Faculty from departments across Wesleyan University and our partner institution, CT State Middlesex, teach courses substantively the same as on our campuses. To date, nearly 100 faculty members have taught 223 courses through the CPE at Cheshire and York prisons. More Information About Our Faculty

  “Until I was in CPE I never really had the sense that anybody cared about my education. The professors that come in here… there’s a lot of caring involved in that. That’s a major difference.” -CPE student

  “My very deep belief is that nobody is defined in terms of the worst thing they did. Nobody is defined by their upbringing or their circumstances. We are always changing and one really exciting way that change can happen is through education,” -Lori Gruen, William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, founding faculty member

  “Seeing the progress and achievement of the students and the success of the alumni, Prison Education is not only beneficial to the students, but also rewarding for those who teach. I was also reminded that we should not take our usual privileged environment at Wesleyan for granted. Teaching in prison with limited access to students and materials, helped me develop the ability to adapt to a new environment. It was a great opportunity for me to reconsider the way I teach.” - Naho Maruta, Associate Professor of the Practice in East Asian Studies

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  Faculty Advisors

  CPE BLS students benefit from intense engagement with faculty advisors as they progress through their degree and explore their intellectual interests. More Information About Our Faculty

  Lori Gruen, William Griffin Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Philosophy

  Eirene Visvardi, Associate Professor of Classical Studies

  Courtney Weiss Smith, Associate Professor of English

  Tushar Irani, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Letters

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  Alumnx

  CPE alumnx back in the community go on to earn graduate and professional degrees, work in law offices and research institutes, in restaurant management and theater companies – translating their liberal learning into working lives as inspirations to their communities. More Information About Our Alumnx

  We are proud of the continued work to include the voices and perspectives of CPE alumni in campus conversations and welcome them into University life. Three former students have rejoined our academic community as course auditors this year, energizing campus classrooms with their unique perspectives and examples of resilience. We have been able to sponsor the projects of four others and to host three CPE alumnx leaders over the past year for on campus lectures.

  CPE's involvement with the Allbritton Center's CSPL120 course has encouraged close campus collaborations with CPE Alumnx. Current Wesleyan students in the course are supporting alumnx's endeavors, from their leadership in gender-responsive reentry organizations to community organizing and onward to the floors of the state Capital. The 80-plus former participants in CPE who have returned to the community are well positioned for positive impact in their communities, and it has been exciting to imagine with them what will grow from the strengthening of this network and the increased support of their leadership.

   

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  Campus Student Partners

  Campus student Teaching Assistants work closely with faculty who are teaching courses with the Center for Prison Education, earning credit for their engagement in creating equitable access to college for peer learners in prison. TAs attend in-prison study halls as Cheshire and York, facilitating discussions and providing one-on-one academic support and partnership. Campus student Research Partners work in the CPE office, fulfilling research requests submitted by students in prison as they search offline library databases. RPs facilitate independent discovery and exploration of information by CPE student researchers with appetite for bold inquiry but without direct access to the Internet.

  More About Our Campus Students

  “I do CPE because it is the most exciting and engaging academic environment that I have experienced in my time at Wesleyan. The students that I have encountered in my time at CPE are curious and intense learners. They bring a high level of excitement, focus, and care to every study hall and it has been an amazing experience getting to know them and learn with them.” - Grace Brustin '24, Former CPE Teaching Assistant

  Summer 2025 Teaching Assistants: 

  • Trajan Sanchez
  • Coline McEachern
  • Cassandra Short
  • Isa Cino
  • Raimi Bagwell

   

  Summer 2025 Research Partners:

  • Isabella Tan
  • Isa Cino

• Faculty Advisory Committee

  CPE counts on a Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) to oversee the CPE curriculum and advise and consult on CPE’s broader educational goals and vision.  Current FAC members

  Tony Hatch, Chair and Professor of the College of Science and Technology Studies, Director of the Center for the Humanities

  Tushar Irani, Chair and Associate Professor of Letters, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Associate Professor of Education Studies

  Sarah Leone, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, CT State Community College Middlesex (CSCC liason to FAC)

  Han Li, Associate Professor of Mathematics

  Lauren Silber, Associate Professor of Education Studies; Associate Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Associate Professor of English; Associate Professor of American Studies; Assistant Director of Academic Writing

  Courtney Weiss Smith, Chair and Associate Professor of English

   

   

The CPE Team

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  Jareka Dellenbaugh-Dempsey

  Program Coordinator, York CI

  North College, 420

  jdellenbaugh@wesleyan.edu

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  Caelan Desmond

  Campus Engagement Fellow

  North College 419

  cdesmond@wesleyan.edu

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  Victoria Justice

  Operations Coordinator

  North College, 419A

  vjustice@wesleyan.edu

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  Shirley Sullivan

  Program Coordinator, Cheshire CI

  North College, 420

  ssullivan@wesleyan.edu

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  Tess Wheelwright

  Director

  North College, 418

  twheelwright@wesleyan.edu