Challenges & Opportunities in Rehabilitating Extremist Offenders

The Chair of Christian Thought presents The Bentall Lectures in Christian Theology with Dr. Ryan J. Williams SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow Department of Classics and Religion, University of Calgary This talk explores the challenges and opportunities of rehabilitating individuals convicted of terrorism-related offences within prisons. This problem is examined in the light of Anglican theologian Rowan Williams’ reflections on the meaning of “responsibility” and the role of correctional services as “guarantors of possibilities.” Different countries have varied approaches, with some “containing” convicted terrorist offenders in special units and other countries “dispersing” this type of prisoner among the regular prisoner population. This talk uses the UK’s “dispersal prisons” as an example and will describe the complex relationships among offenders convicted of terrorism and peers, staff, and chaplaincy.
Location:
Social Sciences 113
Speaker:
Dr. Ryan J. Williams completed his Ph.D. in 2012 in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. His dissertation was on “promoting resilience to violent extremist Islamism.” In 2015 he won a SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Calgary. He has published articles in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and in the Journal of Contemporary Religion. In February 2015 his article, “Why some prisons produce terrorists,” appeared in The Globe and Mail.
More information at http://www.ucalgary.ca/events/calendar/challenges-opportunities-rehabilitating-extremist-offenders