Raum 2G. 094
In this workshop, we draw on an Abolition Feminism framework that conceptualizes the prison as part of a network of violence that deflects attention from the root causes of harm and neglects the role of healing, restoration, and transformation. We also explore the role of joy in Transformative Justice and activism.
The Covid-19 pandemic has seen a reinforcement of prisons, other institutions in the prison industrial complex, and carceral logics, rather than seizing the moment to invest in community-led initiatives that centre healing and care. The reality that women, men, and non-binary, and other gender expansive and diverse people and children continue to be incarcerated means that as a society we support or at best acquiesce to systemic dehumanization (Gilmore 2007, 243). This is something that can and is being challenged in a myriad of ways.
Through our Abolition Feminism framework, we reconnect with Black feminist roots that point us to “the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking” (Combahee River Collective [1977], 2017, 15). This draws on the Kitchen Table method that enables for a relaxed dialogue around aspects of Transformative Justice and its connection with joy and activism. We will incorporate a range of teaching methods e.g., self-reflective exercises, multimedia activities, group work to create a more interactive and collaborative learning environment.
Fabienne Emmerich is a Law Lecturer at Keele University in the UK. She is Institutional Lead for the North West Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership and Lead for the Gender, Sexuality, and Law Research Cluster at Keele. Fabienne is holder of a Leverhulme Fellowship for her project “Swimming against the current: women, prison reform and resistance” (2019-2021). Her research interests include Punishment, Resistance and Gender; Transformative Justice and Abolition Feminism; and Queering legal studies. In her current project, she critically explores the struggle of women to reform the prison. She draws on feminist theories of solidarity to engage with the writings, speeches and reflections of Dr. Helga Einsele, governor of Frankfurt women’s prison in (West) Germany (1947-75).
Flick Adams is an Associate Lecturer at The Open University, Doctoral Researcher at Keele University and a Facilitator. Flick’s research interests include queer and feminist theories and approaches, trans studies with a specific focus on PIC abolition, and anti-carceral, community and transformative Justice theories and practices. Flick’s doctoral project examines, through a queer-feminist abolitionist critique, how the prison system in England and Wales constructs and recognises identities, redistributes resources, and locates trans women within the prison – in cultural, spatial, and material terms to abolish the prison structure. Flick’s project sits at the intersection of Gender, Sexuality and Law and Socio-Legal Approaches.
Please register by July 5th via anmeldung_CGCentrum@soz.uni-frankfurt.de.