By Emily Sok, Published April 23, 2024
Email: elizabeth.catchings@du.edu
Academia.edu Profile: https://udenver.academia.edu/LibbyCatchings
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/libstress1?lang=en
Libby Catchings is an Associate Professor in the University of Denver’s writing program. She serves as a program coordinator for Writing Accountability Groups, and is an affiliate faculty board member for the DU Prison Arts Initiative. This initiative is a program that offers arts-based experiences to facilitate community dialogue about incarceration. This initiative sponsors a podcast, art exhibitions through a program called Unchained Voices, a radio station called Inside Wire, and a publishing venue called LuxLit Press. What an amazing example of community engagement!
Much of her work has emphasized community advocacy and incarceration. For example, her 2019 Reflections article titled “Bodily Instruments: Somatic Metaphor in Prison-Based Research” cautions against service learning in prison advocacy that might privilege white, antiracist, scholarly narratives over the stories of incarcerated individuals themselves. She offers somatic metaphor as a framework for mindful community engagement, which suggests the prioritization of embodied knowledge and simultaneous rhetorical action.
Take a look at some of Libby Catchings’ scholarship:
The Virginia Community Writing Collaborative 