IR5731 Prisons: Spaces of Power, Resistance and Peacebuilding

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 11

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

Tues 10am - 12noon

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr M M B Shwaikh

Dr M M B Shwaikh
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr M Shwaikh

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

Today, millions of people are caged in prisons. Those are often the society's most oppressed and marginalized communities. Prisons have for long been the response to almost all societal problems. In the words of professor and activist Angela Davis, 'Prisons have become a response of first resorts to so many of the society's problems'. They are the response to poverty, drugs, and political dissent. And it is often people of color, especially Black people, who are the most impacted by those violent spaces.

Assessment pattern

Coursework = 100%

Re-assessment

3-hour Written Examination =100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

1 1h lecture (X11 weeks), 1 1h tutorial (X10 weeks), 2 consultation (office) hours (X11 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours

108

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

187

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Critically engage with the subject of abolition, its significance in the modern day, and be able to develop an argument on whether it is possible in the current political climate.
  • Develop an understanding of the key arguments surrounding the nature of global prisons and what they are built for, violence of the authorities/prisoners, resistance of the prisoners, and peacebuilding approaches and the way they impact on the national and international just and sustainable peace.
  • Examine the role of prisons in managing justice and peacebuilding efforts through several case studies.
  • Develop a multidisciplinary understanding of how and why prisons emerge and their impact on the society and whether they achieve what they are built for?
  • Critically analyze resistance within prisons and the resource mobilization of tactics and bodies to resist.
  • Contextualize the racial injustice that allow prison authorities to put more people of color in prisons for longer periods and sometimes without charges.