Tanya Erzen

Tanya Erzen is a Professor of Religion, Spirituality and Society and directs the Crime, Law, & Justice Studies minor. She is a founder of the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS), a higher education in prison program at the Washington Corrections Center for Women.

She is currently writing a book entitled Runaways, Delinquents and Unruly Girls: Gender and the Carceral State in Washington supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Grant. Professor Erzen is also the author of God in Captivity: The Rise of Faith-Based Ministries in an Age of Mass Incarceration, (Beacon Press, 2017); Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement (California, 2006), which received the Ruth Benedict Prize and the Gustave O Arlt award; Fanpire: The Religion of Twilight (Beacon Press, 2012); and co-editor of Zero Tolerance: Quality of Life and the New Police Brutality in New York City (NYU, 2001).

From 2023-2026, Erzen is the PI on the Mellon Foundation Humanities for all Time grant to foster humanities approaches to the Crime, Law and Justice program. She is also leading a national project on promising teaching and learning practices in higher education in prison from the Ascendium Education Group. In addition she is collaborating with the Washington Prison History Project to build a digital archive of gender and incarceration in Washington. She has been a Soros Justice Media fellow and a Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence. She has also received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, American Association of University Women and the Social Science Research Council.
 

Selected Media on Prof. Erzen’s research

• CSPAN "God in Captivity: Interview with Tanya Erzen"
• KUOW Interview about Faith-Based Groups in Prison
• TEDx on Prisons and Higher Education
• NPR Fresh Air Interview about Straight to Jesus
   

Selected Media on FEPPS and Crime, Law and Justice

• White House Invites FEPPS and University of Puget Sound to Criminal Justice Panel
• Arches Magazine, "Breaking Down the Walls: Lessons From Freedom Education Project Puget Sound"
• South Sound Magazine, “Trapped Bodies, Freed Minds”
• Seattle Times, "Joy, tears as 19 Washington prison inmates earn college degrees"
• Seattle Times, "Behind bars, college is back in session in some Washington prisons"
• King 5 "Program helps women earn college degrees behind bars"
• "Collins Memorial Library Prepares to Meet Needs of Student-Prisoners in FEPPS Program"
• “UPS Ethics Bowl Competes in First Ever Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl at WCCW"