Appreciating Ashley: Learning About and From the Life and Death of Ashley Smith through Feminist Pedagogy

Abstract

Abstract Feminist scholars and advocates struggle with how to confront the over-criminalization of the most marginalized girls and women. One of the most troubling illustrations of gross injustice is what happened to Ashley Smith. The anniversary of Ashley Smith’s death is a catalyst for amplifying feminist voices. In this paper, I use the Ashley Smith case as a way to frame how I teach critical social justice issues concerning the criminalization of girls and women. My aim is to encourage critical conversations about pedagogy in feminist criminology and socio-legal studies aimed at ameliorative change. With the discipline of Criminology’s systematic failure to understand the unique problems and shared circumstances of girls’ and women’s lives, feminist professors’ teaching, which offers a lens for our students that underscores young women’s constrained choices and the socio/political/cultural context in which their lives and behaviours are embedded, opens up possibilities for transformation.