Beyond Abusive Policing, Mass Incarceration, and the Death Penalty

1 Course Unit

How do reformers actually win? This seminar studies American policing, mass incarceration, and the death penalty from the organizer's perspective — the perspective of the people who build the coalitions that pass laws and move courts. Students will read foundational scholarship by Muhammad, Forman, Hinton, Carbado, Western, and Gottschalk alongside policy reports, movement documents, and the first-person accounts of those who survived the system or organized to change it. Weekly guest speakers include practitioners who led the campaigns being studied. Students will produce a publishable op-ed and a policy memo that a real elected official can act on. Fall or Spring Also Offered As: SOCI 2922 1 Course Unit