After the Uprisings: Abolition and Black Studies

This small, discussion-based seminar will examine the concept of “abolition” and its relationship to Black Studies. In the aftermath of the uprisings of 2020, abolition has become part of popular discourse in ways hardly imagined by some of its theorists and practitioners. The framework is most often aimed at carceral structures such as police, prisons, and surveillance, yet some interpretations of abolition take aim at the state, borders, and even the world. This seminar will explore the varied discourses of abolition and invite students to wrestle with the theoretical and practical difficulties the framework is confronted with, such as questions of law, politics, gender, and temporality. A key site of inquiry will be the methods of struggle proposed to get from the present to the anticipated abolitionist future. What “pathways to abolition” are prioritized, while others fall off the table?