Course Offerings
Course Spotlight
Learn about the courses offered by the Women & Gender Studies Institute from our instructors.
WGS435S: Prisons & Abolition
Session: Second Summer Sub-Session 2023 (In-person)
Instructor: Shokoufeh Sakhi
Time: Monday 10:00 — 12:00; Wednesday 10:00 — 12:00
Course Description: In this course we will draw on the works of feminist abolitionists, and critical educators in race, justice and prison studies such as Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Angela Davis, Mariame Kaba and Lisa Guenther. In addition, movies, prison memoirs and documentaries, as well as prison art works will allow us to bring the lived experience of imprisonment to the classroom. We will begin with a historical survey of the prison reformist movement beginning in the 18th century, and geographically we will look at a variety of prison systems and carceral violence around the world. We will investigate the phenomenon of prison and the psychological effects of imprisonment with an emphasis on the effects of solitary confinement and sensory deprivation. By the end of the term, you will have gained the ability to critically reflect, think and engage with the world of imprisonment, the implications of growing incarceration around the world, and the significance of prison abolition in the world you dream of living in.