WVU Human Rights Film Series
February 25 and March 4, 2026 from 6-8pm
Ming Hsieh Hall, Room G 21
Burden of Innocence
February 25, 2026 from 6-8pm
Room G 21 of Ming Hsieh Hall
Film screening and panel discussion led by Professor Melissa Giggenbach, director of the WV Innocence Project, WVU College of Law.
The event includes panel presentations by exoneree Debra Milke, who was on Arizona’s death row for 22 years, and Tony Walton, who is currently fighting his wrongful conviction for armed robbery in Fayette County, West Virginia.
College Behind Bars
March 4, 2026 from 6-8pm
Room G 21 of Ming Hsieh Hall:
Film screening and panel discussion co-led by Dr. Katy Ryan, director of the WVU Center for Prison Education and Research and founder of the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP), and WVU doctoral student Danielle Stoneberg, a coordinator for both APBP and the WVU Higher Education in Prison Initiative. Panelists include Bard College graduate Darryl Byers-Robinson, who was formerly incarcerated and is featured in the film, and Celeste Monette Blair, a poet and visual artist recently released from federal prison. WVU Bookstore will staff a book-signing for This Book is Free and yours to Keep: Notes from the Appalachian Prison Book Project, an award-winning WVU Press publication.
The series is made possible by the WVU Community Human Rights Film Fund, established by Morgantown residents Don Spencer and the late Carol Howe Hamblen. The series is overseen by the WVU Native American Studies Program.