GI431: Abolition and Anticarceral Feminisms.

This course centres around the critical feminist inquiry: are prisons obsolete? The class will focus on the history, growth, and current functioning of global systems of stratification, surveillance, and segregation/detention with the critical goal of questioning the future of such carceral structures. The course begins with the iconic book, Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis and foundational anticarceral feminist examinations. The texts for the course intersect with several fields, including Geography, History and Disability Studies. Through transnational and interdisciplinary exploration, students are introduced to a range of sites and strategies of carceral and anticarceral feminisms and exposed to methods of scholarly interrogation and analysis. The course introduces justice-based terminologies and political philosophies, and outlines various justice models such as retributive, rehabilitative, restorative, incapacitative, and transformative justice.