The Australian Journal of Human Rights (AJHR) has awarded the annual Andrea Durbach Prize to Dr Lisa Ewenson for her article, Lived experiences of youth justice detention in Australia: reframing the institution in a decarcerated state.
"Lisa's article is a wonderfully grounded qualitative study that combines an understanding of the current youth justice detention framework, including structural drivers of incarceration such as endemic poverty and colonisation, and a convincing argument for decarceration," said Dr Regina Jeffries, one of the prize jury.
Fellow prize jury member Sherine Al Shallah described the article as: "Courageous and creative, not only in its subject matter of centring often marginalised youth lived experience, but also its form of presenting the analysis and findings through the narrative of incarcerated youth."
The Andrea Durbach Prize is awarded to an author or authors whose original article in the AJHR reflects the values that have resonated in Professor Durbach’s career and scholarship. These include: the courage to push the boundaries of human rights debates; the creativity to examine issues that cut across different academic disciplines; and a desire to press for human rights accountability to ensure voices that are not always heard are magnified. The prize jury this year also included AJHR co-editors in chief Associate Professor Holly Doel-Mackaway and Dr Maree Higgins,
Dr Ewenson is part of the HowWeSurvive team, and is also engaged with the Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership at UNSW.
You can read Dr Ewenson’s winning article in open access here.