Thursday, September 24, 2020
Opening with music written and performed by Kenyatta Emmanuel, Robbie Pollock, and Isaias Umali III of the Freedom Trap, poetry by Ian Manuel, and artwork by persons who have been affected by racialized mass incarceration.
with an Introduction to Abolitionism Today by Jindu Obiofuma, Cheryl Wilkins, the Abolition Collective, the Barnard Abolition Collective, and the team at The Digital Abolitionist
and
A “Critical Conversation about Abolitionism” with Ivan Calaff,
Alexis Hoag, and Bruce Western
discussing
“Envisioning Abolition Democracy” by Allegra McLeod
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, October 15, 2020
with
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Ivan Calaff, Robert Gooding-Williams, Flores Forbes, and Kendall Thomas
Reading and discussing
Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880
by W.E.B. Du Bois
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prison, Torture, and Empire
by Angela Davis
This session will open with a reading by Christopher Wolfe of his personal essay: “The most beautifullest thing in this world.”
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, October 29, 2020
with Amna Akbar, Derecka Purnell, Josmar Trujillo, and Alex Vitale
Reading and discussing
The End of Policing by Alex Vitale
“How I Became a Police Abolitionist” by Derecka Purnell
“An Abolitionist Horizon for Police (Reform)” by Amna Akbar
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Artist Dread Scott will open Abolition 4/13 with a presentation on his slave revolt reenactment project and the motivation, planning, and development behind it.
Professors Dennis Childs, Maeve Glass, and Stephanie Jones-Rogers
will read and discuss
Slaves of the State: Black Incarceration from the Chain Gang to the Penitentiary by Dennis Childs
They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rogers
“Venus in Two Acts” by Saidiya Hartman
“Partus sequitur ventrem: Law Race, and Reproduction in Colonial Slavery” by Jennifer Morgan
Illusions of Emancipation: The Pursuit of Freedom and Equality in the Twilight of Slavery by Joseph P. Reidy
The History of Mary Prince by Mary Prince
Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution by Eric Foner
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, December 3, 2020
This seminar will open with a performance by singer Theo Bleckmann.
Followed by
Professors Amy Allen, Étienne Balibar, Karuna Mantena and Dan-el Padilla Peralta
Reading and discussing
Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
Critique of the Gotha Programme by Karl Marx
What is Property? by Pierre Joseph Proudhon
12:15 – 2:45 pm EST / 6:15-8:45 pm Paris time
~~~
Thursday, December 17, 2020
A Joint Session with the Institute for Social Research at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt:
Opening with a performance by Heartbeat Opera of Breathing Free with presentations by Filmmaker Anaiis Cisco, Director Ethan Heard, and Creative Producer Ras Dia
followed by
Professor Martin Saar and Bernard E. Harcourt
Reading and discussing
“State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations” by Friedrich Pollock
Franz Neumann, Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933–1944 by Franz Neumann (excerpts)
“Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?” by Theodor W. Adorno
12:15 – 2:45 pm EST / 6:15-8:45 pm Frankfurt time
One Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse (excerpts).
Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944 by Franz Neumann
~~~
Thursday, January 7, 2021
A Joint Session with The Centre for Research in Post-Kantian European Philosophy at the University of Warwick
Opening with a conversation with playwright Cori Thomas and Adnan Khan on the play
LOCKDOWN
followed by a conversation with
Miguel Beistegui, Henrique Carvalho,
Stuart Elden, Daniele Lorenzini, Goldie Osuri, Irene Dal Poz, and Federico Testa
on
The Punitive Society by Michel Foucault
12:15 – 2:45 pm EST / 5:15-7:45 pm UK time
~~~
Thursday, January 21, 2021
with
Lisa Montgomery’s attorney Kelley Henry, death penalty reporter Liliana Segura, trauma psychologist Susannah Sheffer, mother of Joseph Nicols Lee Greenwood, and death penalty attorneys Alexis Hoag and Bernard E. Harcourt discuss the trauma of the death penalty on families of the condemned and the abolition of the federal death penalty
12:15-2:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, February 4, 2021
with
Reginald Dwayne Betts and Allegra McLeod
Reading and discussing
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis
“Prison Abolition and Grounded Justice” by Allegra McLeod
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, February 25, 2021
This seminar will open with a presentation by Tymber Hudson
followed by
a conversation with Professor Dorothy Roberts
on
Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts (excerpts)
Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare by Dorothy Roberts (excerpts)
“Prison, Foster Care, and the Systemic Punishment of Black Mothers” by Dorothy Roberts
“Abolishing Policing Also Means Abolishing Family Regulation,” by Dorothy Roberts
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, March 11, 2021
with Alyssa Battistoni, Daniela Gandorfer, and Reinhold Martin
Reading and discussing
Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime, by Bruno Latour
“Où suis-je?” — Leçons du confinement à l’usage des terrestres (Chapter 1), new book (in French, 2021) by Bruno Latour
“Abolish Oil” by Reinhold Martin
“Gas Guzzling Gaia, or: A Prehistory of Climate Change Denialism” by Leah Aronowsky
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, April 1, 2021
with Professors Seyla Benhabib, Joseph Carens, and Paulina Ochoa Espejo
Reading and discussing
“We Refugees” by Hannah Arendt
“Migration as Decolonization” by E. Tendayi Achiume
“The End of the 1951 Refugee Convention? Dilemmas of Sovereignty, Territoriality, and Human Rights” by Seyla Benhabib
The Ethics of Immigration (chapter 11) by Joseph Carens
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Opening with a performance by the poet Ian Manuel, author of My Time Will Come,
followed by
Katherine Franke, Ian Manuel, Derecka Purnell, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
reading and discussing
“What is Owed” by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar
Repair: Redeeming the Promise of Abolition by Katherine Franke
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University