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The University of Winnipeg

Walls to Bridges

Eye-opening program brings incarcerated students and campus-enrolled students together to learn as peers, behind correctional facility walls.

Walls to Bridges is a unique program offered through The University of Winnipeg. This program connects incarcerated and campus-enrolled students to study together inside the prison walls, earning credit toward their degrees, and sharing academic and life experiences — changing lives and views on world issues. Walls to Bridges uses teaching methods designed to ensure both groups of students learn as equals.

 

NEW Spring 2025 Walls to Bridges Courses

Fear and the Short Story (W2B)
ENGL-2603-001
Instructor: Alyson Brickey
Spring 2025 – May 6 to June 19, 2025
Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-3:30pm
The great American short fiction writer Ambrose Bierce once quipped: “Fear has no brains. It is an idiot.” In this class, we’ll be encountering the theme of fear from a broad range of short fiction writers, investigating how each text approaches aspects of human experience that frighten, cause anxiety, scare us, or invoke dread. We’ll think critically about the role that fear plays in storytelling and ask what each text might be provoking us to think about through its representation of this singularly strong emotion. Writers studied may include Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, Thomas King, James Joyce, and Octavia Butler. This class will be highly collaborative with regular discussions and group work. Assignments will include regular journal responses to readings, group presentations, and a final critical and/or creative project. The class is part of the University of Winnipeg Walls to Bridges program, and it will be held at Stony Mountain Institution (Medium Security).
Contact Alyson Brickey for more info!
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Producing a Play (W2B)
THFM-3002-495
Instructor: Hope McIntyre
Spring 2025 – May 6 to June 19, 2025
Tuesdays/Thursdays 1pm-3:30pm
This course will focus on the process of producing a play in a collective model. It will use theatre-based techniques to explore how the arts can build community and provide transferable skills. Class activities will be practical in nature, ranging from brainstorming, discussion, script analysis, and practical rehearsal work leading up to a performance. Skills and topics explored will include: Communication; Collaboration; Marketing and Audience Engagement; Organization and Planning; Producing for Theatre; and The Business of Theatre.
Contact Hope McIntyre at h.mcintyre@uwinnipeg.ca with any questions or to schedule an interview.

 

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MULT-1200-495 MEDICINAL PLANTS

Spring 2025, THURS 1:00 - 3:30 PM Start Date is May 8 

Instructor: Chad Cornell, Hollow Reed

This course on Medicinal Plants offers opportunities to explore the multiple ways (medicinal, nutritional, ceremonial, aesthetic, and spiritual) of growing, wild harvesting of local plants and the application of holistic healing. The major themes of this course include mainstream and traditional medicinal plant knowledge, applied ethnobotany, and conservation.  Learn how we can relate to our food as medicine. This is a Walls to Bridges course and it employs circle pedagogy and experiential learning methods. The course design includes classroom study and instruction from herbalists. This class takes place in person at Stony Mountain Institution in Maximum Security. Interested students should contact: chadcornellonline@gmail.com & j.harris@uwinnipeg.ca to arrange a time for an interview and for information on Orientation.

 

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Fall 2024 Walls to Bridges Courses

MULT-1200 Medicinal Plants (W2B style)

THUR 1pm-4pm, Fall 2024

Instructor: Chad Cornell

Interested in registering? Please contact Judith Harris j.harris@uwinnipeg.ca

 

MULT-2900 Prison Enterprise and Co-ops in International Context (W2B style)

TUES 6pm-9pm, Fall 2024

Interested in registering? Please contact Judith Harris j.harris@uwinnipeg.ca

 

ENGL-3118-490 Topics in Fiction for Young People: Animal Tales (W2B style)

TUES 1pm-4pm, Fall 2024

Instructor: Heather Snell \ h.snell@uwinnipeg.ca

 

CJ-3184-495 Surveillance, Information, Criminal Justice (W2B style)

TUES 1pm-4pm, Fall 2024

Instructor: Kevin Walby \ k.walby@uwinnipeg.ca

 

Spring 2024 Courses

Applied Theatre II (W2B)
THFM-2001-495
Instructor: Hope McIntyre
Spring 2024 – May 6 to June 17, 2024
Tuesdays/Thursdays 1pm-3:30pm

This course will use theatre-based techniques to explore how the arts can build community and provoke social change with a focus on the logistics of creating new work, producing performances, and operating a theatre collective.

Class activities will be practical in nature, ranging from readings, discussion, improvisation, group creation, and practical exercises. Skills and topics explored will include:

  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Creative and Professional Writing
  • Marketing and Audience Engagement
  • Organization and Planning
  • Producing for Theatre
  • The Business of Theatre
  • Theatre for Social Change

Contact Hope McIntyre at h.mcintyre@uwinnipeg.ca for information.

Introduction to Playwriting (W2B)
THFM-2001-496
Instructor: Hope McIntyre 
Summer 2024 – July 8 to August 16, 2024
Tuesdays/Thursdays 1pm-3:30pm

This course will explore the basic elements of playwriting as well as broader storytelling techniques used in the performing arts. Class activities will be practical in nature. They will include the reading of sample scripts, writing exercises, sharing of written work, discussion of effective storytelling techniques, and practical exercises. Contact Hope McIntyre at h.mcintyre@uwinnipeg.ca  for information.

 

Other Recent Courses 

*Applied Theatre – THFM-2001-495 Special Studies Course at Stony Mountain Institution Fall 2023 - Thursdays 1:30pm-4pm... This 3 credit course is for all those interested in the integration of art with social activism and work in community! Skills explored will include storytelling, communication, collaboration, and the ability to affect an audience through performance. Contact Hope McIntyre at h.mcintyre@uwinnipeg.ca with any questions or to schedule an interview.

*MULT 1200 Short Stories, Poetry and Art. Instructor: John Samson Fellows Fall Term, 2023 Thursdays, 1:00 to 3:30 pm at Stony Mountain Institution. In this course, students generate short forms of creative non-fiction, fiction, poetry, memoir, and reportage, and apply editorial processes to their work and the work of others. The final project will be a collaborative printed zine, which may incorporate visual art. This course brings campus-enrolled students together with incarcerated students in person at Stony Mountain Institution. Permission required: contact Judith Harris at j.harris@uwinnipeg.ca 

*Surveillance, Information, & Criminal Justice – CJ 3184 Course at Stony Mountain Institution Fall 2023 - Tuesdays 1pm-3:30pm... This 3 credit course is for all those interested in Walls to Bridges. Explores issues of visibility and invisibility adopting the Walls to Bridges style. Contact Kevin Walby for details. k.walby@uwinnipeg.ca

Applied Theatre – THFM-2001-495 Special Studies Course at Stony Mountain Institution Spring 2023 - May 1 to June 12, 2023 Tuesdays/Thursdays 1pm-3:30pm... This 3 credit course is for all those interested in the integration of theatre with social activism and work in community! Class activities will include improvisation, playwriting, and storytelling exercises. Skills explored will include communication, collaboration, vocal delivery, physical embodiment, creative writing, listening, focus, and the ability to effect an audience through performance. Students will be encouraged to discover their own artistry, to explore issues of concern to their communities, to identify problems and then actively rehearse solutions. The work will culminate in a facilitated sharing of work developed throughout the term. Interviews must occur with all interested students and permission must be given to register. Contact Hope McIntyre at h.mcintyre@uwinnipeg.ca  with any questions or to schedule an interview.