This year, FSCJ Honors students are reading Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. Guided by their faculty, the students are exploring timeless issues addressed throughout the text. The Honors Symposium series provides a vibrant intellectual format in which students, faculty, staff and the local community can come together to discuss these issues.

The Office of Academic Engagement cordially invites faculty and staff to attend the first in our exciting Honors Symposium series titled "Monsters" in Our Midst? Using the Arts to De-stigmatize Juveniles Who Commit Crimes" on Thursday, October 19, 7-8 p.m., at the Downtown Campus Building A-1058.

Youthful offenders who commit violent crime have been labelled “super predators” and “monsters.” Labels are not just words. They have power to alter perception, shape policy and forestall rehabilitation. Yet artists working in various media are attempting to help youthful offenders recover their identity. The 2016 documentary They Call Us Monsters looks at producer Gabriel Cowan’s attempt to teach screenwriting to juveniles convicted of violent crimes in Los Angeles County. By helping these young men write scripts and see them performed on screen, Cowan hopes they can reclaim authorship of their own life narratives.   

Professor Cherry will lead a panel discussion of the promises of and the challenges to using the arts to erase labels and empower self-recovery among youthful offenders.