VCU College of Humanities and Sciences

How can storytelling shape life after incarceration?

David Coogan, associate professor of English, explores this in his new book, "After Jail, Before Freedom". The sequel to "Writing Our Way Out" is co-authored with five of the original 10 students featured in the first book.

The book follows what happened when they got out of jail and began building new lives, sharing their experiences of reentry, growth and the challenges they faced along the way.

Read more. https://bit.ly/4dQ5FFd

In ‘After Jail, Before Freedom,’ VCU author David Coogan revisits his co-authors The English professor’s new sequel to ‘Writing Our Way Out’ continues exploring incarceration, and its aftermath, through storytelling.

Roqia Ali, a political science and homeland security double major, is passionate about ensuring students feel empowered to make their voices heard.

As co-executive director of VCU Votes, she has helped expand civic engagement efforts across campus, earning recognition on the 2026 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll for her dedication to voter education and participation.

Read more about how Roqia is making an impact at VCU here. https://bit.ly/4xawDib

Family journey inspires Roqia Ali’s passion for civic engagement The VCU Votes leader champions democracy and doesn’t take it for granted.

That’s a wrap on the first week of CHS Summer Camp! 😎☀️

Swipe to see our honorary Rams in action as they explored Virginia’s history through 3D scanning for our “Print the Past in 3-D” camp. These rising middle schoolers got to explore VCU’s campus and beyond, and even got to make a few pit stops to some of our other departments and schools! Can you spot them? 😉

Rising junior Jayda Johnson-Scales was recently featured by CBS6 for her research on the cumulative impacts of pollutants on the East End.

"These are the things that we walk past everyday, we drive past everyday. We see these things, we could live two miles from it, and they overall have a tremendous impact on our health, our livelihood, and our quality of life," Johnson-Scales said.

Click to read the full story. https://bit.ly/3Q7bu7Q

Sometimes you just get to do cool things all day long. It's halfway through 3D Print the Past summer camp session, and today we headed over to The Valentine for a tour and activity with Sophia and Cece (the best!), plus more 3D scanning of artifacts. In the afternoon, we learned about how the VCU Department of Physics uses 3D scanning in their research, and walked over the The Workshop in VCU James Branch Cabell Library to begin printing our own 3D scans.

We kicked off our first session of CHS Summer Camp yesterday! Sixteen middle schoolers are joining us this week for "3D Print the Past: Virginia's Digital Heritage Adventure," an anthropology camp, where they will learn about cultural preservation -- what it is, why it's important, and how to tell stories about the past. On the first day, campers spent time digging in the dirt, discussing weird objects, and practicing 3D scanning. This morning, we headed to Hollywood Cemetery where we took a tour with Doug, our amazing guide from the Valentine Museum, and scanned grave markers. Couldn't ask for better weather or better kids! The Valentine

👏👏 Congratulations to Dr. Simonelli!

Congratulations to Dr. Andrea Simonelli, recipient of a competitive research grant from the VCU Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) Fund!