1/13 | Abolition Today

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

followed by

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

Columbia University

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2/13 | Abolition Democracy

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Opening with a reading by Christopher Wolfe of his personal essay: “The most beautifullest thing in this world”

followed by

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

Columbia University

~~~

3/13 | Abolish the Police

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Opening with a conversation between Samantha Felix and Ghislaine Pagès on the police killing of Samantha Felix’s brother, Matthew Felix

followed by

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

Columbia University

~~~

4/13 | The Abolition of Slavery

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Opening with a presentation by artist Dread Scott on his slave revolt reenactment project and the motivation, planning, and development behind it

followed by

Professors Dennis Childs, Maeve Glass, and Stephanie Jones-Rogers

reading and discussing

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

Columbia University

~~~

5/13 | Property is Theft!

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Opening 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

Paris

~~~

6/13 | Abolish Capital

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

One Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse (excerpts).

Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944 by Franz Neumann

Frankfurt

~~~

7/13 | Beyond the Punitive Society

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

Miguel Beistegui, Henrique Carvalho,

Stuart Elden, Daniele Lorenzini, Goldie Osuri, Irene Dal Poz, and Federico Testa

reading and discussing

The Punitive Society by Michel Foucault

Coventry

~~~

8/13 | Abolish the Federal Death Penalty!

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Lisa Montgomery’s attorney Kelley Henry, death penalty reporter Liliana Segura, trauma psychotherapist 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.

Columbia University

~~~

9/13 | Prison Abolition

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Reginald Dwayne Betts and Allegra McLeod

reading and discussing

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis

“Prison Abolition and Grounded Justice” by Allegra McLeod

Columbia University

~~~

10/13 | Abolishing Family Policing

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Opening with a presentation by Tymber Hudson

followed by

Professors Dorothy Roberts and Bernard E. Harcourt

reading and discussing

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

Columbia University

~~~

11/13 | Abolish Oil

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Opening with traditional Lakota singing and drumming by Red Rock Perkins, John Eagle Shield Jr., and Kendall Little Owl of Iron Bull Singers and a brief discussion of the CCCCT’s Standing Rock Litigation with lead attorney Professor Noah Smith-Drelich

followed by

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

Columbia University

~~~

12/13 | Open Borders

Thursday, April 15, 2021

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