Gender, Sexuality, and Prison Abolition

Catalog description

This course addresses the complex relationships between gender, sexuality, and prisons by examining how forms of systemic oppression such as racism, sexism, heteronormativity, capitalism, ableism, colonialism, etc. have shaped the prison industrial complex. The course also emphasizes approaches within feminist theory, queer theory, and trans studies that seek to critique and dismantle systems of incarceration. Lastly, the course includes creative works by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated authors, activists, and artists to frame discussions of how sexuality and gender function both within prisons, jails, and other detention settings, and how carceral systems, more broadly, shape gender and sexuality beyond prisons walls. Course content variable; course repeatable for credit.