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Class number:
3172
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Title: Abolition: A Global History |
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Department: American Studies |
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Career: Undergraduate |
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Component: Lecture |
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Session: Regular |
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Instructor's Permission Required: No |
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Grading Basis: Regular |
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Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 25 |
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Current enrollment: 18 |
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Available seats: 7 |
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Start date: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 |
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End date: Thursday, December 21, 2023 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
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Schedule: TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM, MC - 106 |
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Instructor(s): Heatherton, Christina |
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Prerequisite(s): None |
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Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities Requirement |
Course Description:
Over the past decade, a new word has emerged in the lexicon of struggle: abolition. Alongside calls to "Abolish prisons," "Abolish ICE," and "Abolish borders," organizers have challenged the horizons of political possibility. This class considers contemporary debates while situating them in a long global history. We will study how definitions of freedom, the state, and human rights have been shaped by struggles to abolish slavery in tandem with Indigenous struggles against settler colonialism. We will learn how abolition has long been defined not simply as the negation of untenable violence but as an affirmation of alternative ways of being. By engaging American Studies and Human Rights scholarship on incarceration, disability, racism, gender and sexuality, we will deepen our understanding of this language of struggle. |