COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH
The Confined Arts Research Team is dedicated to centering the experiences of people impacted by mass incarceration in academic discourse. Situated at the Center for Justice and the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia University, TCA’s Research Team draws on an interdisciplinary network of researchers and students, while also keeping close ties to formerly and currently incarcerated scholars, artists and community members. People who have personal experience with incarceration are involved in every stage of TCA’s research design, implementation and analysis. This dual perspective into both scientific and experiential expertise uniquely positions TCA to conduct rigorous and community-informed research. TCA aims not only to generate knowledge, but to create change by including the voices and perspectives of people who have suffered from an unjust “justice” system.
TCA RESEARCH INTEGRITY
The research conducted through The Confined Arts aspires to uphold the following tenets:
- Community- centered: directly useful to impacted individuals and their communities, policy makers, academic institutions, nonprofits and beyond
- Continuous Iteration: evolves to meet the needs of the community and developments in research methodology
- Excellence in Research: rigorous, valid, reliable, statistically significant with the highest ethical standards and professional best practices
- Qualitative and quantitative
- Interdisciplinary: considers context of multiple institutions, disciplines and professions
