UCLA PhD Candidate in Culture and Performance, Christina Novakov-Ritchey will be joining the University of Houston - Clear Lake (UHCL) this fall as an Assistant Professor of Humanities. Novakov-Ritchey’s research examines why the knowledge of certain communities—such as peasants, incarcerated people, Indigenous people, people from the global periphery and others—is not respected, safeguarded, or acknowledged. Her most recent article on epistemic violence and magical healing has just been published by the European Journal of Cultural Studies. At UHCL, Novakov-Ritchey will be advising BA and MA students in the Transforming Lives by Degrees (TLD) program for incarcerated students as well as in the Department of Liberal Arts. Since 1974, over 600 incarcerated students have earned BA and MA degrees through the TLD program. A leader in the field of prison education, UHCL is the only university in the country to offer face-to-face graduate education for incarcerated students.
“I am thrilled to be joining the UHCL faculty. I am deeply impressed by the university’s commitment to making higher education affordable and accessible. Teaching in the TLD program is particularly exciting for me, because it offers a rare opportunity to primarily teach students who are incarcerated, while also being totally integrated into an on-campus department that promotes interdisciplinary humanities research and teaching. The state of Texas has the highest incarceration rate in the world (840 per 100,000 people), so I am honored to have the opportunity to learn from and advocate for my students and to amplify their voices in the public sphere.”