Patrick Conway named inaugural Ignacio Chair of the Prison Education Program

Boston College Prison Education Program Director Patrick Conway has been named the inaugural Ignacio Chair of the program, a newly named and endowed directorship established through a generous gift by anonymous donors. 

“This milestone recognizes Patrick’s significant contributions to the field of prison education nationally, and his accomplishments in advancing excellence within BC’s own program,” said Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley. “The name Ignacio ties the work we’re doing at Shirley directly to the Jesuit, Catholic dimensions of our mission, and for that I am enormously grateful. An endowed directorship provides essential support that will enable Patrick and his colleagues to continue strengthening our distinctive approach to prison education.”

Conway has led the BC PEP since 2021, overseeing its growth to become the largest higher education prison program in the Commonwealth. The program offers incarcerated students at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in Shirley, Mass., a chance to take college-level courses with Boston College instructors and earn credits toward a bachelor’s degree from the University. This fall, the program awarded its first diplomas at a unique commencement ceremony held at the prison. 

A former criminal defense investigator, Conway has spent more than a decade teaching in prison education programs. His research explores the nexus between institutions of higher education and prison systems, and has been published in The Review of Higher Education, Teaching in Higher Education, Educational Policy, and the Harvard Educational Review, among other outlets. He currently serves as a board member of the New England Commission on the Future of Higher Education in Prison, working in partnership with the New England Board of Higher Education and the Educational Justice Institute at MIT to help shape the future of college-in-prison in New England.

Conway earned an M.A. in English from Boston College in 2012 and a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the Lynch School of Education and Human Development in 2022, where he wrote his dissertation College Behind Bars: Exploring Justification for the Involvement of Higher Education in Prison.

Read his op-ed, "Diplomas behind bars provide opportunities for rethinking incarceration," in the Boston Globe.