Exhibition: Time to Think

Many of the interviewees in the Time to Think Project came to The Open University's office in Belfast to record their memories. In the first clip on this page OU staff member Christina McCavana describes her feelings when she looked at an interviewee's name on the sign-in sheet at the reception desk. She realised that he was the person who had been responsible for shooting her friend many years before. Christina agreed to be interviewed about this experience for the collection and felt this was a way of paying tribute to her friend and his lost opportunity to study.

Pat Jess tutored in the prisons in the 1970s and 1980s. As Social Sciences Staff Tutor she was responsible for organising tutors for Social Sciences students in the prisons 1979-2009. Pat was a founding member of the Time to Think Project Team and was interviewed for the project by one of her former students from the Compounds (in the Maze and Long Kesh Prison). He asked how she dealt with the emotional aspect of dealing and interacting with men who had committed and had been convicted of violent acts and who were classified as high risk and terrorists. Her response that "I was going to tutor students" is typical of the attitude of OU tutors to teaching in the prisons. Listen to Pat's clip on this page.