Reading and Incarceration, reflections on theory and practice

Understanding, harnessing and using the power of reading to transform lives is the heart of the humanities mission. In this session, two speakers will reflect on the theory and practice of reading in incarceration. We are pleased to receive Lisa Krolak, Chief Librarian at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg, Germany and Miguel Rivera Donoso, coordinator of the Chilean Prison Library programme and PHD candidate at the Graduate School for the Humanities of our Faculty under the supervision of Prof Margriet van der Waal and Dr. Konstantin Mierau. The session will consist of two concise presentations, followed by a roundtable discussion chaired by Dr. Konstantin Mierau, scholar of cultural representations of marginality and prison reading.

Lisa Krolak

Since 2001 Lisa Krolak works as Chief Librarian at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg, Germany. She holds a Diploma in Librarianship (Germany, 1992) and a MSc in Information and Library Studies (UK, 1997). From 1998 until 2001 she worked in an NGO in Belize, Central America, where she set-up various school- and community libraries. In her current position, her research interest is in the role of libraries for supporting literacy and lifelong learning. This led her to write an international book on prison libraries, called Books beyond bars: The transformative potential of prison libraries and a policy brief on the topic, called How prison libraries support rehabilitation efforts. Lisa is the Chair of the global working group on prison libraries of IFLA, in the framework of the IFLA Section for Equitable and Accessible Library Services (EALS). In this function, she coordinated and edited the 2023 update of the IFLA Guidelines on Prison Libraries, together with Jane Garner (Australia).

Miguel Ángel Rivera Donoso

Miguel Rivera is coordinator of the Prison Libraries Plan, National Service of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of Chile and creator of the LEEN Project – Readings in Confinement. Iberoamerican network for the promotion of reading in prisons. Moreover, he is permanent Member of the EALS Committee of IFLA (2021–2025) His professional career, always linked to education and culture, has developed in Chile, Spain, and France, including work in schools, universities, museums, and non-traditional educational centres. Among the institutions where he has worked are the Prado National Museum, the Spanish Film Archive (Filmoteca Española), Spanish National Radio and Television (RTVE), the Bolivarian University of Chile, and the BiblioRedes Programme in Chile. He also completed an internship in libraries located in the favelas of São Paulo, Brazil. He has presented his work in person at conferences and universities in Chile, Spain, Brazil, Croatia, and at IFLA congresses in Poland (2017), Malaysia (2018), and Ireland (2022). He has also participated in numerous virtual conferences organised by institutions such as UIL UNESCO, Iberbibliotecas, and IFLA, among others. Between 2021 and 2022, he was part of the global working group on Prison Libraries, created to revise the IFLA Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners. In 2023, he carried out a professional internship in prisons in Argentina. In 2024, he started a PhD career in the Graduate School for the Humanities, University of Groningen. The Netherlands.