Penal Heritage Symposium

About The Symposium

The celebritization of prison life in popular media and ongoing repurposing of decommissioned penal buildings highlights opportunities for innovation, as well as tensions between commercialisation and commemoration.

The Symposium will bring together interdisciplinary perspectives across academia, practice, and the public sphere in an effort to address how penal heritage is used and to further explore the broader implications of penal heritage for society and culture.

The Symposium will establish a global network for future knowledge exchange activities and agenda to ensure penal heritage plays a constructive role in shaping narratives about justice and reform for future generations.

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A row of prison cells at Shrewsbury Prison

Symposium panel themes

Penal heritage for the experience economy
Public history and education programs for penal heritage learning
Representing prison narratives and the prison experience
Exhibiting public and capital punishment
Repurposing decommissioned penal buildings
Prisons on screen and as a cultural commodity
Ethics and human rights when using penal heritage
Penal reform – past, present and future

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Shrewsbury Prison A Wing | Unique Team Building Location

Panel Speakers

Panel speakers for this event include a range of experts across academia and industry who bring together expertise of penal heritage from the fields of heritage tourism, museum studies, criminology, sociology, geography, literature, and film studies. Our speakers include, Beixi Sun (University of Liverpool); Beverley Cook (London Museum); Cédric Le Bossé and Fabienne Huard-Hardy (The French Correctional Administration Academy); Laura Nys and Margo De Koster (University of Ghent); Njideka Angela Obi (University of Westminster); Deirdre O’Neill (University of Hertfordshire); Jess Marlton (Bodmin Jail Attraction); Stephanie Brown (University of Hull); Kesia Middlemore (Oxford Castle & Prison); Brent McKenzie (University of Guelph); Hannah Gilman (Arden University); Shannon DeBlasio (Mitie Care and Custody); Simon McFadden (Oxford Brookes University); Emily Middleton (University of Leeds); Cormac Behan (Maynooth University); Dominique Moran (University of Birmingham); Graham G Goodwin (Former Prison Officer & Heritage Guide)