The Education Justice Project (EJP) recently received a $20,000 award from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

Rebecca Ginsburg, director of the EJP, said she is thrilled about the award and the opportunity to establish a relationship with the NEH. The NEH funds will be used for a prison computer lab that will consist of 20 desktop workstations and a networked server.

"Through the server EJP will be able to provide our incarcerated students with unparalleled access to educational materials," Ginsburg said. "The lab will enrich classroom learning and pedagogy and support the social, personal, and intellectual transformations that come through exposure to the arts and sciences," she said, adding that internet access will not be provided in the lab.

Because of the NEH award and the computer lab that will ensue, "We intend to create a model for prison education programs and prison libraries across the country," Ginsburg explained. The EJP also recently won a $500 Social Justice Award from the McKinley Presbyterian Foundation in Champaign.

The EJP offers education programs to incarcerated students at the Danville Correctional Center and hosts activities for inmates’ family members in Chicago. In addition, the project also produces critical scholarship about its work.

The Project's mission is to "build a model college-in-prison program that demonstrates the positive impacts of higher education upon incarcerated people, their families, the communities from which they come, and society as a whole."

Ginsburg joined the faculty at the College of Education in February as associate professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership. She is also an associate professor in Landscape Architecture. She holds a Ph.D. in architectural history from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

The NEH is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States.