Abolition: A Social Justice Practicum: Experiential Lab

This course will engage, both in theory and in practice, the ambition of racial justice and abolition democracy. It will study the history of race relations in this country. It will seek to chart the road to abolition of the punitive paradigm in the United States. It will investigate what it might mean to imagine abolition in the context of policing, of the prison, and also of punishment more broadly. And it will do so not only through readings and seminar-style discussion, but with hands on practice in legal cases involving capital punishment, police violence, and protest rights, as well as public policy interventions.

Shukur and Harcourt will assign teams of students to one project for the semester that deals squarely with the themes of the course. Project based work will include advocacy on behalf of an individual seeking relief from a death sentence; civil rights litigation in police shooting cases; litigation on behalf of protesters; and other similar types of cases or public policy interventions. Depending on travel restrictions, the class may also go on a trip to Montgomery, Alabama, or elsewhere.