The experiences of Muslim men in Belgian prisons

Woodbridge, E. (Speaker), Lechkar, I. (Contributor), Vanhouche, A. (Contributor)

Activity: Talk or presentation › Talk or presentation at a conference

Description

After the terrorist attacks in France (2015) and Belgium (2016), radicalisation in Belgian prisons gained tremendous international attention in the public, academic and political debate. This focus on radicalization transgressed into the prison context and topics surrounding Muslim (men) in prison seldomly looked past this radicalization discourse. In this ethnographic research we aim to step away from this discourse and explore how Muslim men experience their time in prison by focusing on 1) the changing role of religion and Islam in particular in current prison policies (macrolevel); 2) how Islam is regulated and experienced by prison actors (prison officers, governors and social service actors) (meso-level); 3) how Islam is experienced by Muslim prisoners (micro). Prison and Muslim masculinity frameworks are used to understand how masculinity impacts above mentioned policies and experiences. This ground-breaking research makes use of traditional ethnographic (participant observation and semi-structured interviews) and novel methodologies such as digital storytelling. Moreover, the multidisciplinary approach will enrich different research strands within anthropology, criminology, political science, and minority studies.
This presentation described the concepts that are used, how the ethnographic research will take place and which methods shall be implemented.
Period22 Apr 2022
Event titleESC Prison Working Group
Event typeConference
LocationGeneva, Switzerland
Degree of RecognitionInternational