Faculty Profile: Anna Terwiel

Anna Terwiel
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Phone: (860) 297-5257	Office Location: Downes Memorial 211
Send e-mail to Anna Terwiel
Trinity College faculty member since 2017	View office hours for Spring 2025

Degrees:

Ph.D., Northwestern Univ.
Diplome, Ecole Normale Superieure Paris
M.A., New School for Social Research
B.A., Univ Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne

Anna Terwiel is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. Her research and teaching combine political theory with feminist theory, critical carceral studies, and medical humanities. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles on the politics of punishment and abolition, ranging from debates over prison conditions (why do prisoners deserve air conditioning?) to feminist debates about the role of state punishment in the struggle against sexual and gender violence (when does feminism become "carceral"?).

Professor Terwiel's book, Prison Abolition for Realists, is forthcoming with University of Minnesota Press. The book counters common preconceptions of prison abolition as an idealistic, moral, or politically naive project, and argues that prison abolition fits in the realist political tradition. Through close readings of key abolitionist thinkers from Michel Foucault to Angela Davis, Prison Abolition for Realists identifies an agonistic democratic politics at the heart of abolition. A generous Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) supported the completion of the manuscript.

Professor Terwiel also co-directs Trinity's Prison Education Project (TPEP), which offers credit-bearing courses to people incarcerated at York Correctional Institution (the state's prison and jail for women and people assigned female at birth) and Hartford Correctional Center, the city's jail.

Before coming to Trinity, Professor Terwiel taught at Northwestern University, the Feinberg School of Medicine, and, with the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project (PNAP), Stateville Correctional Center. In the classroom, she combines theory with case studies to help students explore the contemporary political stakes of theoretical texts. She encourages students to develop their own interpretations through writing and collaborative class discussion.

Peer-reviewed articles:

"The Revolutionary Politics of Abolition." Polity (forthcoming).
"Problematization as an Activist Practice: Reconsidering Foucault." Theory & Event 23, no.1 (2020).
"What is Carceral Feminism?" Political Theory 48, no.4 (2020): 421-42.
"Between Carceral Feminism and Transformative Justice. A Critical Response to ‘Anti-Carceral Feminism and Sexual Assault - A Defense’ by Chloë Taylor." Social Philosophy Today 35 (2019): 161-65.
"What is the Problem with High Prison Temperatures? From the Threat to Health to the Right to Comfort." New Political Science 40, no.1 (2018): 70-83.

Book reviews:

"Visions of Resistance: Violent Eruptions, Care, and the Everyday." Response to Geo Maher's Anticolonial Eruptions: Racial Hubris and the Cunning of Resistance (University of California Press, 2022). Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 30, no.1 (2022): 95-97.
“Review of Arendt, Agamben and the Issue of Hyper-Legality: In Between the Prisoner-Stateless Nexus, by Kathleen Arnold.” Perspectives on Politics 17, no. 3 (2019): 876-7.
“The Politics of Human Weapons: Banu Bargu’s Starve and Immolate.” Theory & Event 19, no. 1 (2016).
“Ethics and Politics for Somatic Individuals: Heyes’ Self-Transformations.” Theory & Event 15, no. 1 (2012).

Invited talks and colloquia presentations:

“Abolition: The New Revolution?” Annual Human Rights Lecture, University of Massachusetts at Boston, May 2022.
“With or Against the State? Feminism, Prison Abolition, and the Pursuit of Justice.” Invited presentation at Political Theory Workshop, University of Connecticut, Apr. 2022.
“With or Against the State?” Invited presentation at Political Theory Workshop, Cornell University, Jan. 2022
Invited visit to graduate seminar, “Contemporary Feminist Political Theory,” Dr. Megan Gallagher, Department of Gender and Race Studies, University of Alabama, Nov. 2021
“What is Carceral Feminism?” Invited talk at Pioneer Valley Political Theory Workshop, Smith College, May 2019
“Solidarity in a Carceral State: Activist Responses to Prison Protests.” Invited talk at Global Liberal Studies Program, New York University, Nov. 2017
“Human Weapons, Autonomous Patients, and Other Ways to Think of Hunger Strikers.” Montgomery Lecture, Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program, Northwestern UniversityFeinberg School of Medicine, May 2015
“Hunger for Change: Hunger Strikes, Medical Ethics, and Politics.” Montgomery Lecture, Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, April 2014
“The Problem of Sovereignty in Foucault.” Political Theory Workshop, University of Colorado-Boulder, Feb. 2013

Presentations:

“Abolition, Revolution, Intolerance: Reconsidering the Prisons Information Group.” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy conference, Oct. 2022
“Care Without Cages? Prison Abolition and Modern Medicine.” American Political Science Association conference, Sep. 2022
“Revolution in a Postrevolutionary Age: the Prison Abolition of Angela Davis.” Law and Society Association conference, July 2022
“Revolution in a Postrevolutionary Age: the Prison Abolition of Angela Davis.” Western Political Science Association conference, Mar. 2022
“The Power of New Rights: Beyond the Reform/Abolition Debate.” Association for Political Theory conference, Nov. 2021
“A Transatlantic Reflection on the Politics of Prison Abolition.” American Studies Association, Oct. 2021
“Was Foucault a Prison Abolitionist?” American Political Science Association conference, Oct. 2021
“Was Foucault a Prison Abolitionist?” Law and Society Association conference, May 2021
“Why Not Prison Abolition? Considering Abolitionism with Foucault, Alexander, and Davis.” American Political Science Association conference, Aug. 2020
“Carceral Entanglements: Medicine, Hunger Strikes, and the Promise of Solidarity.” Association for Political Theory conference, Oct. 2019
“Decarcerating Medical Ethics: Prison Hunger Strikes, Medicine, and the Promise of Abolition.” American Political Science Association conference, Aug. 2019.
“Justice Beyond the Prison: Challenging Carceral Feminism.” New England Political Science Association conference, Apr. 2019.
“Rethinking Carceral Feminism.” Association for Political Theory conference, Oct. 2018.
“What is Carceral Feminism?” American Political Science Association conference, Aug. 2019.
“The Politics of Problematization: Reconsidering Foucault.” New England Political Science Association conference, Apr. 2018.
“Problematizing the Prison: Foucault, Affect, and Prison Abolition.” Association for Political Theory conference, Oct. 2016.
“Active Intolerance of the Prison: Foucault and the Power of Affect.” American Political Science AssociationConference, Sept. 2016.
“Starving for Change: Theorizing Prison Hunger Strikes.” Midwestern Political Science Association Conference, Apr. 2016.
“Rethinking Bodily Integrity: Sovereignty and Care of the Self in Foucault.” Western Political Science Association Conference, Mar., 2013.