Housing Freedom project launch Seminar
The seminar “Transições - Sair da Prisão, Habitar a Liberdade” (Transitions - Leaving Prison, Inhabiting Freedom) marks the launch of the project “Housing Freedom - Housing as a Tool for Freedom: A Future Away from Incarceration.” The event will take place on 20 October at Iscte - University Institute of Lisbon, from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM, in Building 4, Floor 3, Auditorium A302.
Participation is free of charge. For logistical purposes, participants are kindly asked to register their interest through this LINK.
PROGRAMME:
9h30 | OPENING SESSION
Presentation of the Housing Freedom project
Joana Pestana Lages (DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte)
10h00 | LECTURE: ABOLISHING THE SACRIFICIAL SOCIETY: WHAT DOES ABOLITIONISM HAVE TO DO WITH FEMINISM?
António Pedro Dores (CIES-Iscte)
discussant: Pierre Guibentif (DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte)
11:10-11:30 | Coffee break
11:30 | ROUNDTABLE: LEAVING PRISON: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Amelia Trombetta (GAT - Grupo de Ativistas em Tratamentos)
Sílvia Gomes (Department of Sociology, University of Warwick)
Paula Quadros ( DGRSP - Direção-Geral de Reinserção e Serviços Prisionais)
13:00-14:30 | Lunch break
14:30 | ROUNDTABLE: HOUSING AFTER PRISON: RESPONSES, LIMITATIONS AND ALTERNATIVES
Teresa Silva (CEIP - Centro de Estudos, Investigação e Planeamento / DORSP)
Manuel Almeida Santos (OVAR - Obra Vicentina de Auxílio aos Reclusos)
Ana Rita Alves (CES-Universidade de Coimbra)
16:00-16:30 | Coffee break
16:30 | FILM SCREENING; 2720, BY BASIL DA CUNHA
Fiction short film | 2023 | 25 min
Screening followed by a discussion
17:30 | CLOSING
About the projet:
The project begins with a question: what conditions are needed to build a life in freedom after prison? Leaving prison is a decisive moment, but the possibility of finding a home, securing an income, accessing care and rebuilding relationships depends on conditions that cannot be resolved on the day of release.
Housing Freedom places housing at the centre of life in freedom. Having a place to live means more than having a roof over one's head: it involves stability, autonomy, privacy and the possibility of building relationships and imagining futures. Through research in Portugal, Belgium and Norway, the project seeks to understand the experiences of people leaving prison, identify barriers to accessing housing and develop fairer spatial and policy responses. Its abolitionist perspective invites us to think of freedom as something that is built through housing, services, communities and the forms of care and accountability we make possible.
'Housing Freedom: A Future Away from Incarceration' project is financed by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (GA 101219668).