Carceral Logics,Edu,Abolition

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Carceral logics – or the punish and control approach to organizing life and solving social problems - have long permeated US society and, in particular, public education. In recent years, the police-free schools movement, alongside abolitionist scholars, educators, and activists, has raised the alarm regarding the damaging impact of such logics on educational and social outcomes, particularly for race-class subjugated communities. This course will cover the history and present of policing, surveillance, and carcerality in education, the relationship between the prison industrial complex, schooling, and racial justice, as well as abolitionist responses and radical imaginings of what education – and society – could and should be. Students will learn from key thinkers and activists in the field and develop a real-world project in response to the issues raised in this course.