Practicing Abolition: A Digital Roundtable on Abolitionist Pedagogy

Author

Samantha Lilienfeld, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

6-2022

Document Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

M.A.

Program

Liberal Studies

Advisor

Justin Rogers-Cooper

Subject Categories

American Studies | Educational Methods | Higher Education

Keywords

Abolition, abolition democracy, radical pedagogy, universities

Abstract

This capstone project explores education and pedagogy as sites for abolitionist practice, and approaches abolitionism as a method by building on the idea of abolition democracy. Using the framework of abolition as a pedagogical practice, I see teaching and learning as urgent tasks of contemporary abolitionism. My project integrates research and scholarship on the abolition of prisons and policing with practices of pedagogy, in part by thinking interdisciplinarily with students and scholars working within CUNY. Practicing Abolition: A Digital Roundtable on Abolitionist Pedagogy incorporates voices from students and scholars about how they practice abolitionist pedagogy in higher education by presenting a conversation as an asynchronous digital roundtable on abolitionist pedagogy published on CUNY Commons. The roundtable was conducted through asynchronous conversations, then arranged and organized by presenting guiding questions and corresponding discussion. The website features a written and auditory collection of these conversations, a glossary of key terminology, and the scholarship cited during the roundtable. By utilizing existing theoretical research, including the field of radical pedagogy, my capstone explores the contradictions that arise from incorporating abolitionist pedagogies into institutions of higher education. This project takes up abolition in application to institutions outside of prisons, but still affected by them, in the belief that abolition is an ongoing practice, and to broaden the potential and scope of abolition democracy.

Recommended Citation

Lilienfeld, Samantha, "Practicing Abolition: A Digital Roundtable on Abolitionist Pedagogy" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4824