Hi, I’m Emma Stapleton, and I’m a new contributor to Novel Hand!
I’m a senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in public policy studies, with a focus in criminal justice. I am specifically interested in issues of mass incarceration, understanding it’s rise, it’s accompanying injustices, the actors in the system, and avenues for reform.
In my time at Vanderbilt, I have tried my best to take an active role in the community and these issues and have learned a lot about what it looks like to engage with humanitarian issues and affected populations, while confronting my own privilege. I am still learning a lot, which is part of why I was drawn to the concept of Novel Hand.
Though all of us contributors have a background in formal academic learning and research at Vanderbilt, what is beautiful to me about the Novel Hand community is the way that we identify as a community of learners. We’re looking to bring what we have learned, what we are curious about, and what we are still grappling with to a community of people looking to do the same. It’s a learning that is a lot less rigid than the confines of academia.
At Vanderbilt, I’ve done considerable work with the Vanderbilt Prison Project, a serviced-based organization that aims to educate, equip, and inspire the Vanderbilt student body to work with the Nashville community for progress in the criminal justice system. VPP works to serve, advocate for, and uplift those impacted by it, a mission statement which we formed my first semester on board.
As the public relations chair, I had to do a lot of writing and thinking about rhetoric and education about the system and what that looks like. Each website description, Facebook event, and message to our community members was carefully crafted. I learned a lot about the importance of language that gives testament to the dignity that already exists in each of us. From our community members, a lot of whom were formerly incarcerated, I learned that many preferred the word “insiders” when speaking about individuals experiencing incarceration, and preferred “individuals experiencing incarceration” over “prisoners” and especially “convicts”. Language is important because it can help us to understand truer stories than assumption often allows. Though, my blog posts will, to some extent, be carefully crafted, I hope too to speak with a tone not of definitiveness and knowledge, but of learning. I’m sure there are always ways my writing could be “more right,” more developed, more enlightened.
I have learned a lot from the Nashville community, from organizations like No Exceptions Prison Collective, Free Hearts, Gideon’s Army, Unheard Voices Outreach, Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the Nashville Community Bail Fund, and more. The wonderful people behind these organizations have inspired me in ways they do not know. I’ve been invigorated by the hardworking individuals I intern for at the Tennessee Innocence Project. I have been humbled and reminded of the redemptive qualities of the human spirit, but also learned to feel deep hurt and anger alongside the brave people who attend the vigils for the state killings on death row.
I will post most often about the things I am learning from my own education and community engagement, a lot of which has been focused in Nashville. However, I would encourage the reader to recognize that this richness surely exists in your own community, if you look for it. I have been fortunate to have an organization like the Vanderbilt Prison Project to help plug me in.
That all being said, I am always excited to learn new things about any topic. If you ever have questions or subjects you want me to explore, feel free to hit my line at emma.v.stapleton@vanderbilt.edu.
- How Can Human-Centered Design Lead to Greater Social Impact? - January 27, 2021
- How is Transformative Justice Different from Restorative Justice? - December 30, 2020
- Expungement and Sealing: What Are They and Why Should States Expand These Forms of Record Relief? - November 13, 2020