Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited

“Restorative Hope theorizes hope and tells the story of hope in action. It is one of the best examples of the integration of experiential knowledge and scholarly insight I have come across in the literature on mass incarceration. Farmer engages deeply with literatures about hope, the carceral continuum, and conditions inside prisons. She provides a conceptual apparatus for thinking about hope while sustaining engagement with the thinking of her interlocutors, women entangled in the carceral continuum whose insights about the complexities of hope and hoping form the core of the book. This book thus gives “hope” life well beyond its colloquial existence as a cliché and/or empty promise, ultimately arguing it to be both radical because it is a force for change at the individual and social level and practical in the sense that it must be practiced. This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the carceral continuum. Farmer's book shows that understanding is best cultivated by learning from those who have made meaning from and in spite of its impacts on their lives.”
—Renée J. Heberle, University of Toledo

“By connecting mobility to hope, Farmer names something fundamental about the prison —restricting movement also restricts hope. As readers learn firsthand how incarcerated women nurture hope in a place characterized by restraint, we are invited into a shared project with them. We may get proximate and cultivate spaces of hope where resilience is strengthened, identities are reclaimed, and meaningful connections are made. Farmer’s book is itself an instigator of hope, moving us to reclaim our own agency in the face of a seemingly unmovable reality.”
—Jennifer M. McBride, author of You Shall Not Condemn

“Restorative Hope is an unparalleled treatment of the complicated and often harsh and hopeless realities of women in and returning from prisons. Farmer carefully and critically holds together rigorous scholarly engagement and the stories of the women she interviewed. She invites all of us to hope as she centers these women’s images of hope and resilience even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and structures that were designed to render them hopeless.”
—Almeda Wright, Yale Divinity School

“This is a book for all who need their hope restored. In Restorative Hope, Dr. Sarah Farmer and the brave women who entrusted her with their stories offer the world a resilient practical theology and pedagogy of hope. As practical theology, Dr. Farmer invites the powerful and heart-moving stories and creativity of women formerly incarcerated to teach us about how God and hope function in the lives of populations in confinement. As pedagogy, Dr. Farmer allows these stories to point her toward a restorative hope pedagogy that seeks to create authenticity, connection, and resilience for carceral and noncarceral educational spaces. Ultimately, Dr. Farmer teaches us that hope is communal and institutional. She challenges us to practice compassionate mobility in prisons, theological schools, churches, and communities to activate restorative hope as theological and educational practice. We are indebted to Dr. Farmer for taking seriously the voices and perspectives of women along the carceral continuum. By sharing their stories with us, we learn just how enormous hope can be.”
—Rachelle Green, Fordham University

“Sarah Farmer listens brilliantly to those who are rarely heard—women who are or have been incarcerated. She listens with a depth of theological analysis and emotional intelligence unmatched by any other text on women in prison that I have ever read. This is one of the most beautiful accounts of a practice of hope that we have. If you read it, you might come to learn how to listen as well as Sarah Farmer. This book will be read for generations.”
—Willie James Jennings, Yale Divinity School

“Read the preface of this wonderfully written and carefully researched book by my former colleague and you will be hooked. As you read further, you will see hope come and spread its wings in some of our most desolate social spaces—prisons. A compelling practical theology and pedagogy of restorative hope.”
—Miroslav Volf, Yale Divinity School

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Maintaining Hope in Crisis: Exploring Challenges along the Carceral Continuum
2. Building Resilience: The Quest to Survive
3. Overcoming Identity Paralysis: Carceral Stripping and the Quest to Be Somebody
4. Nurturing Connection: The Quest for Meaningful Relationships
5. Theological Teaching in Prison: The Quest to Create Spaces of Hope
Conclusion, Implications, and Future Research: Where Do We Go from Here?
Bibliography
Index