Friday, April 4

6:30 a.m.

Breakfast at Embassy Suites for hotel guests begins

7:45 – 8:45 a.m.

Shuttle service to campus for Embassy Suites hotel guests on loop

Following Sessions at Mary Graydon Center, American University

8:30 – 9:00 a.m.

Coffee bar with light breakfast and Check-in

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.

Opening Remarks

9:45 – 11:30 a.m.

Plenary Panel I : Abolitionist Frameworks

Orisanmi Burton (American U)
Priya Kandaswamy (San Diego State U)
Silky Shah (Detention Watch Network)
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Georgetown U)

11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Lunch (provided)
Book exhibit with vendor BOL, DC’s first worker-owned bookstore.

12:45 – 2:30 p.m.

Concurrent Sessions:

1. Challenging Carceral Logics of Gender & Sexuality
2. Grounded Struggles I: Confronting Carceral Geographies

3. Abolition & The State

Move to McKinley Building, 2nd Floor

2:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Coffee/Tea Bar

2:45 – 4:45 p.m.

Film Screening and Post-Film Talk:
Ghosts of Adelanto & the Rise of Abolish ICE
Producers Setsu Shigematsu (in-person) and Cinthya Martinez (virtual)
Register for film screening (conference participants and speakers are automatically registered)

5:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Pre-Keynote Reception

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Keynote Address: Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Register for keynote (conference participants and speakers are automatically registered)

8:15 – 9:15 p.m.

Shuttle service from campus to Embassy Suites for hotel guests on loop

Saturday, April 5

6:30 a.m.

Breakfast at Embassy Suites for hotel guests begins

8:15 – 9:15 a.m.

Shuttle service to campus for Embassy Suites hotel guests on loop

All Sessions at Mary Graydon Center, American University

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.

Breakfast and Check-in (Mary Graydon Center at AU)

9:30 - 9:45

Day Two Opening/Updates

9:45 – 11:30 a.m.

Plenary Panel II: Abolitionist Praxis

Tanay Harris (Bloom Collective)
Laura McTighe (Women With A Vision)
Jasmine R. Jackson (National Black Food & Justice Alliance)
Connie Wun (AAPI Women Lead)
Chair: Jane Palmer (American U)

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Lunch (provided)
With lunchtime exhibition of “Shattering Justice & Re-Making the Muslim Threat,” a physical and digital exhibition, developed by Muslim Counterpublics Lab, that meticulously documents key events, policies, and laws implemented in the United States following the 9/11 attacks and the launch of the War on Terror. View digital version

12:45 - 2:30 p.m.

Concurrent Sessions:

1. The Biopolitics of Incarceration
2. Grounded Struggles II: Freedom is a Place
3. Unraveling the Global Politics of Policing

2:30 p.m.

Coffee / Tea Bar

3:00 – 4:30 p.m.

Plenary III: Abolitionist Futures—A Moderated Conversation
Sarah Haley (Scholars for Social Justice, Columbia U)
Dylan Rodriguez (UC Riverside)
Naomi Paik (U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Moderator: Sara Clarke Kaplan (American U)

4:30 – 5:15 p.m.

Abolition in a Time of Crisis: Open Dialogue
In this current political moment, gatherings like these can be opportunities for much-needed coalitional organizing. In that spirit: how do the radical histories, organizing traditions, analytical tools, and future vision(s) of abolition inform and equip us for the work to be done right now?
Facilitator: Sara Clarke Kaplan

5:15 – 5:30 p.m.

Closing Remarks

5:45 – 6:45 p.m.

Shuttle service from campus to Embassy Suites for hotel guests on loop

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Concurrent Sessions I

Challenging Carceral Logics of Gender & Sexuality

Chair/Discussant: Sara Clarke Kaplan (American U)

Presenters:

• Jane Palmer (American U), "The Political is Personal: Antidotes to the Carceral Logics of Everyday Life"
• Austin Lukondi (New York U), "'Free Them All' Means Everyone: Towards Abolishing Registries of Sexual Violence"
• Maya Pendleton (upEND) and Alan Detlaff (U of Houston), “Reproductive Justice, Family Policing, and Abolition”

Grounded Struggles I: Confronting Carceral Geographies

Chair/Discussant: Malini Ranganathan (American U)

Presenters:

• David C. Turner III, Mariah Tso & Joana Chavez (UC Los Angeles) “Archiving, Mapping, and Documenting the Fiscal and Human Cost of Incarceration with the Million Dollar Hoods Project”
• Kavya Padmanabhan (Rice U) "‘Globalizing’ Penal Abolition in Western Contexts: A Comparative Analysis of the United States and England and Wales"
• Maha Hilal (Muslim Counterpublic Lab; American U) "Incarcerated Muslims in War on Terror: Towards an Inclusive Abolitionist Politic"
• Manissa Maharawal (American U) "The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project: Counter Mapping for Housing Justice"

Abolition & The State 

Chair/Discussant: Kirstie Dorr (American U)

Presenters:

• Jarrett Martin Drake (U at Buffalo) “Towards an Abolitionist Approach for Studying the State”
• Lydia Pelot-Hobbs (U of Kentucky) “Abolition and the Question of the State”
• Josh Lown & Mutual Aid Eastie/Apoyo Mutuo (Northeastern U; Mutual Aid Eastie/Apoyo Mutuo) "Addressing the challenges of embodying abolition-oriented praxis in mutual aid organizations: The case of Mutual Aid Eastie/Apoyo Mutuo”
• Netfa Freeman (Black Alliance for Peace DC)

Concurrent Sessions II

The Biopolitics of Incarceration

Chair/Discussant: Tracy Weitz (American U)

Presenters:  

• Gabrielle Corona (Princeton U) “Plasma, Public Health, and Prisoners in Late Twentieth Century Louisiana"
• Carolyn Sufrin (John Hopkins U) “Punished with Pregnancy: Biopolitics of Abortion Foreclosure in Carceral Institutions”
• Mali Collins (American U) “The Carceral Hospital: Debt, Birth, and Imagining a New World of Health”
• Sara Clarke Kaplan (American U)

Grounded Struggles II: Freedom is a Place

Chair/Discussant: Kenjus Watson (American U) 

Presenters:

• Bethany Murray, Pharren Miller, Shantell Missouri (UC Los Angeles) "(Abolitionist) Care, Not Cops: Redefining Safety in Schools through Community-Led Campaigns”
• Garrett Graddy-Lovelace (American U) "Towards Abolitionist Agrarian Geographies: of Kentucky, of Palestine"
• John West (U of Illinois, Chicago) “Are we still doing this schooling thing?: Abolitionist Pedagogies and Black Educational Fugitive Space”

Unraveling the Global Politics of Policing

Chair/Discussant: Orisanmi Burton (American U)

Presenters:

• Brendan Hornbostel (George Washington U) “ Policing Is Capital in Washington, D.C.: An Abolitionist Counter-History of the Metropolitan Police Department”
• Zoltan Gluck (American U) & Wangui Kimari (American U Nairobi) “Postcolonial Abolition: The Failure of Police Reform and the Case for Abolition in Kenya (and Beyond)”
• Oliver Robinson (Pan-African Community Action)
• Frank Godinez (UC Los Angeles) "Police, Nonprofits and the Carceral Web: A Study of Police Nonprofits in Los Angeles City"
• Christina Cano (Yale U) "From Weelaunee to Falasteen: The Role of the Nonprofit Police Foundation in Carceral Expansion”