Policing America

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This First-Year Seminar explores the history of law enforcement in the United States, with a particular focus on its relevance to contemporary movements for racial justice. Drawing on a variety of primary and secondary source materials—from historical accounts of police practices to critical arguments for police reform and abolition—we will trace three interlocking historical threads across time: 1) the evolution and modernization of police institutions; 2) the nationalization of law enforcement imperatives; and 3) the persistence of selective police enforcement, disproportionately targeted toward Black and immigrant communities. The goal is to provide students with a common language for understanding some of the most urgent political issues of our time: police surveillance and militarization, force and violence, immigration and border enforcement, and the movements for restorative justice and prison abolition. Readings will include works by Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Elizabeth Hinton, Anna Lvovsky, John Pfaff, Radley Balko, Angela Davis, Derecka Purnell, and Keeanga-Yamhatta Taylor—among many others.