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
with Professors Dennis Childs, Maeve Glass, and Jennifer Morgan*
Reading and discussing
Slaves of the State: Black Incarceration from the Chain Gang to the Penitentiary by Dennis Childs
“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
with Professors Amy Allen, Étienne Balibar, and Karuna Mantena
Reading and discussing
Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
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:
Professor Martin Saar* and Bernard E. Harcourt
Reading and discussing
For Coöperation and the Abolition of Capital; or, How to Get Beyond Our Extractive Punitive Society and Achieve a Just Society (draft)
by Bernard E. Harcourt
12:15 – 2:45 pm EST / 6:15-8:45 pm Frankfurt time
~~~
Thursday, January 7, 2021
A Joint Session with The Centre for Research in Post-Kantian European Philosophy at the University of Warwick:
Miguel Beistegui, Claire Blencowe, Henrique Carvalho,
Stuart Elden, Daniele Lorenzini, Goldie Osuri, Irene Dal Poz, and Federico Testa
Reading and discussing
The Punitive Society by Michel Foucault
12:15 – 2:45 pm EST / 5:15-7:45 pm UK time
~~~
Thursday, January 14, 2021
with
Anthony Ray Hinton*, Alexis J. Hoag, and Bryan Stevenson*
Reading and discussing
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
by Bryan Stevenson
“Valuing Black Lives: A Case for Ending the Death Penalty”
by Alexis Hoag
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, February 4, 2021
with
Reginald Dwayne Betts, Angela Davis*, Ian Manuel 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
with Professor Dorothy Roberts
“Wives, Slaves and Wage Slaves” by Carole Pateman
Killing the Black Body 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
“Abolish Oil” by Reinhold Martin
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, April 1, 2021
with Professors E. Tendayi Achiume, Seyla Benhabib, and Joseph Carens
Reading and discussing
“Migration as Decolonization” by E. Tendayi Achiume
“We Refugees” by Hannah Arendt
“The End of the 1951 Refugee Convention? Dilemmas of Sovereignty, Territoriality, and Human Rights” by Seyla Benhabib
On Borders: Territories, Legitimacy, and the Rights of Place by Paulina Ochoa Espejo
6:15-8:45 pm
Columbia University
~~~
Thursday, April 22, 2021
with Katherine Franke, Nkechi Taifa*, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
“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