About Program & Course
This course examines how the patriarchy oppresses men, cultivating a culture of violence, which ultimately harms everyone in society. We will explore the relationships between masculinity, violence and its cultures, gender, and how feminism can cure the social issues that arise from these interconnections. More specifically, we will investigate the role that media and other forms of cultural socialization play in the enforcement of patriarchy by means of documentaries and academic texts, taking an interdisciplinary approach, including women's studies, gender studies, sociology, psychology, and philosophy.
This course utilizes the Inside-Out (IO) Prison Exchange Program model. Lori Pompa of Temple University founded the program in 1997, teaching the first class in the Philadelphia Prison System. IO is an educational program with an innovative pedagogical approach tailored to effectively facilitate dialogue across difference. It originated as a means of bringing together campus-based college students with incarcerated students for a semester-long course held in a prison, jail or other correctional setting. Inside-Out generates social change through transformative education.
All but two classes will be held at the Maricopa Re-entry Center in north Phoenix. Transportation will be provided to via Lyft vouchers, carpooling from the Downtown campus and possibly the West campus (with sufficient enrollment). Students must be available from 4:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. on Tuesdays during the Spring semester, session A for class time and travel to and from the facility.
How to apply
All Barrett students who expect to complete 171 or 370 before Spring of 2026 are eligible to apply. Only 10 Barrett students will be admitted to the course via an application process.
Applications are due October 31, 2025.
If chosen as a finalist, a brief interview will be required with Dr. Fedock during the first week and a half of November. 10-14 students will be selected from the resident population at the Maricopa Reentry Center via a similar application and interview process. All accepted Barrett students must undergo a background check and complete online volunteer training through the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry.
The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice also offers Inside-Out courses.
Believe it or not, students don’t want the course to end! Luckily, students have the opportunity to continue working together through our Inside-Out Think Tank.
Think Tank
Think Tanks are groups of Inside-Out alumni (both incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and non-incarcerated) and / or trained faculty who meet regularly on a volunteer basis. The groups form organically, based on local interests and initiatives, and are a testament to the civic engagement, human connection, and sense of agency that Inside-Out courses inspire.
Think Tanks operate with the Inside-Out model, which facilitates learning via community building across social difference. Think Tanks develop their own projects, which may include leadership development, re-entry programs, training Inside-Out faculty, or community workshops on topics such as restorative justice, conflict resolution, and racial inequality. Find more information at insideoutcenter.org/think-tanks.html.
All students who complete the Men and Feminism IO course are invited to participate in the Barrett Think Tank. The Barrett Think Tank was established in March, 2019 in an effort to continue working on the projects developed in the course. Inside and outside students have developed a 9-hour workshop version of the course and offered it to residents and staff at the MRC, designed a workshop on consent and gender roles for middle school students, met to discuss intersectional feminist literature and media, and designed feminist art workshops for MRC residents.
Want more honors credit?
Resister for an independent study with Dr. Fedock while working on Think Tank projects. OR register for thesis credit and turn an IO Think Tank project into your thesis.
Please direct any questions you may have to Dr. Rachel Fedock at [email protected].