Prefiguring an Abolitionist University: To Be In But Not Of

Abstract

This article begins from the perspective that the prison and the university are different sides of the same coin. Both the university and the prison have a symbiotic relationship with one another: like the prison, the university is a power broker—it is invested in the same intersecting regimes of power—hetero-patriarchal capitalism, white supremacy, and settler colonialism—benefitting from the success, and emulating the design of these structures. It is thus the author’s contention that studying abolition requires experimentation with theoretical modes and conceptual practices that might reorient study itself and provide alternative coordinates for the development of abolitionist futures.