My name is Elisa Venzon, and I am from Brazil, where I earned my Master’s degree in History and graduated as a History Teacher at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. In the Fall of 2025, I began the PhD program in the History Department at Temple University.
The path of discovering my intellectual interest dates back to 2019, when I found myself absorbed in readings about the criminal justice system and penal institutions, motivated by an abolitionist perspective on prisons. What started as a personal interest developed apart from my studies, made me later understand that what kept me most excited was not the history of crime itself, but the history of prisons, the critics towards them, and the way they establish a relationship with justice systems, media, activists, the urban space, and society in general. For my undergraduate thesis, I studied the restorative justice program Justice for the 21st. Century (Brasil, 2005-2008), and used the discourse analysis as both theory and methodology to read the program’s documents and understand the socio-political paths that led the legal community to think, propose, and execute alternatives to the retributive criminal justice system.
In 2025, I completed my master’s thesis on the final years of the Casa de Correção de Porto Alegre and its role in the prison system of Rio Grande do Sul state, regarding the discussion and debate within the local society. By characterizing prison as a social institution, I understand it as a non-natural apparatus for regulating and organizing human conduct while establishing and (re)producing political, economic, and social relations between intra and extramural. This notion, combined with the concept of representation, guided the research and enabled the creation of a logical, rational, and meaningful narrative about the socio-spatial dynamics inside that house of correction.
Since the beginning of 2017, I have focused on experiencing all opportunities that History led me to. First, I joined my University’s museum as part of their educational section, at the same time I enrolled in an extension project as a translator of African women’s biographies from English to Portuguese. I was also part of a scientific research about the remission of prison sentences by reading; a volunteer teacher to 9th-grade students; and, eventually, the Editor-in-Chief of Aedos, the students’ journal from my Postgraduate History Program. Although I truly enjoyed all of these projects, my main goal is to have a career that allows me to continue the research I’ve been doing in the last five years, regardless of the place or institution. Because I have a specific goal but a broad path that can guide me to it, besides being an academic professor, I would like to get closer to Public History practices to expand my future possibilities. Although they are not synonymous, I believe Oral and Public History are embedded in each other’s theory and practice, in addition to the value both of them can bring to enhance my studies in the social history of carceral institutions.
If you are interested, please contact me at elisavenzon@gmail.com.
