Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Summer 5-1-2024

Course Description

*This course is a general university class that fulfills the Extended Studies requirement. In addition, this course is an approved elective for the sociology major/minor. Important note: Abolition was created by/for folks who have been historically and contemporarily disenfranchised and devalued within the confines of America’s justice system (and globally) due to over-criminalization at the hands of violent policing and mass incarceration. As such, in this course, we will work towards restoring humanity for society’s most targeted and marginalized.--- America’s justice system has not yet fulfilled its promise of fairness and equity for all people given the promotion of unjust and lethal outcomes for BIPOC and minoritized groups navigating the criminal system. The unraveling of American Democracy results from reform efforts that have fallen short of providing agency/legal recourse, reparations, and accountability for histories of violence, exclusion, and persecution in this country. Social justice advocates and critical legal scholars alike have insisted on a vastly different approach to justice. Abolition calls for the formal end of policing, the Prison Industrial Complex, and mass incarceration as a start. Current social movement efforts, like defunding the police, are a precursor to the long-term goal of eradicating contemporary systems of slavery and genocide pervasive within our Legal System. Abolitionist approaches are preferred for their ability to garner large-scale, structural accountability for the fallacies of our [un]just[ice] system. Therefore, we begin the course by defining abolition and exploring its utility, specifically how it is different from (and preferred over) other legal reform efforts. Next, we will expose the structural institutions that fuel the carceral state, such as neighborhoods and schools. This will allow us to end the course by exploring micro-political inequities within these structures, like racial, gender, sex, and class bias, and how we can proximate justice now. For this May Term, we will work toward building a strong socio-legal toolkit that will aid us in the creation of new systems rooted in freedom, power, and uplift.

Student Outcomes

Students will be able to: • Understand the key differences between legal reform and abolitionist approaches to justice • Understand how the criminal system (and the many ancillary systems of oppression) works to marginalize BIPOC and other minoritized groups • Understand how an abolitionist framework can help reimagine democracy in America that is rooted in BIPOC humanity, uplift, and thriving

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