PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
INSTRUCTOR: RYAN SHANAHAN
shanahan@umd.edu
|
PHONE: 301.405.7709 |
| OFFICE HOURS: MON 3-5, WED 3-4, AND BY APPT. |
OFFICE: WMST 2101 |
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is intended for graduate students pursuing a master's or
doctorate degree with an avid interest in the workings and implications of
the prison industrial complex. The class will assume a general working
knowledge of feminist theory and intersectionality/simultaneity, as these
will be the foundations for class discussion. This class is an effort to
bridge the academic and activist worlds - bridging practical, material
knowledge of the (in)justice system with theoretical understandings of
justice, race, class, gender and sexual orientation.
Class participation factors heavily into the requirements for the
class. Every student is expected to show up having prepared for class and
adding constructive, thought out comments to further class discussion and
build on your classmate's contributions. Students will also will present
a ten minute "standpoint/locating yourself/autobiography" once during the
semester.
There are numerous responsibilities for the student outside of the
weekly class room experience. Each student is required to view the
assigned movies ahead of class. All movies are available for viewing at
Hornbake Library. Students are also required to do two field
assignments. Prior to Week 12, each student must attend one Justice 4 DC
Youth Coalition meeting (to find out more information you may go to
www.justice4dcyouth.org or www.nomoreoakhills.org). The class period of
Week 8 will be a field trip to a DC adult correctional facility. This
field trip is mandatory for all students (I will not accept notes from
your mom as to why you can not attend)!
Writing exercises are a large component of this course. Students are
required to write a weekly two-page journal that is reflexive of their
relationship to the readings and to the experiences in the
classroom. Weekly journals should be handed in during class period and
posted before class on WebCT. Students are required to reflect on another
student's posting each week. Students are also required to write two
drafts of their final research paper. This paper should be draw from the
readings and conversations of the class, while speaking to the student's
particular research interest(s). Students are required to hand in two
copies of the first draft; one draft to the instructor and one draft to a
fellow student. Students will be partnered to read each other's first
draft. Journals/Reflections are not due on the week that the first draft
is due. Students are required to present their final research paper
during the last two weeks of class.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
1. Abu Jamal, Mumia. 1995. Live from Death Row. New York: Five Avon
Books.
2. Cheney-Lind, Meda and Randall G. Shelden. 1998. Girls, Delinquency,
and Juvenile Justice: Second Edition. Wadsworth: Belmont Press.
3. Davis, Angela. 2003. Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press.
4. Foucault, Michel. 1995. Discipline & Punish: The birth of the
prison. Second Vintage Books Edition.
5. Fraden, Rena. 2001. Imagining Medea: Rhodessa Jones and Theater for
Incarcerated Women. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
6. Maher, Lisa. 1997. Sexed Work: Gender, race and resistance in a
Brooklyn drug market. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
7. Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. 1994. Racial Formations in the United
States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. NY: Routledge.
8. Peltier, Leonard. 1999. Prison Writings: My Life is My
Sundance. New York: St. Martin's Press.
9. Roberts, Dorothy. 1997. Killing the Black Body: Race, reproduction,
and the meaning of the liberty. Pantheon.
RECOMMENDED TEXT:
(we will pull chapters from these text, photocopies will be available on
my office door, but you may want them for your burgeoning
library!)
1. Hill Collins, Patricia. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge,
Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Second Edition. NY,
NY: Routledge.
2. West, Cornel. 2001. Race Matters. Second Vintage Books Edition.
Course Grading
Classroom participation: 25%
Journals/Reflections: 20%
First Draft: 15%
Written Response: 10%
Final Draft: 20%
Presentation: 10%
COURSE CALENDAR:
Week 1
Davis, Angela. Fall 1998 "Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison
Industrial Complex," Colorlines Magazine, vol. 1, no. 2.
Link to Davis aricle
McConnel, Patricia. "Sing Soft, Sing Loud," Sing Soft, Sing
Loud. Logoria, 1995.
Week 2
Omi and Winant, Racial Formations in the United States
Week 3
Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body
Prior to class, please view The Stranger Inside at Hornbake
Library.
Week 4
Mumia Abu Jamal, Live from Death Row
Shaylor, Cassandra. Fall 1998. "Organizing Resistance:" Building a
movement against the prison industrial complex," ColorLines Magazine, vol
1, no 2.
Link to Shaylor
Article
Week 5
Michael Foucault, Discipline & Punishment
Prior to class, please view Slam! at Hornbake Library.
Week 6
Cornel West, Race Matters. Preface 2001, Chapters 2, 4, 7, and
8.
Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought, Chapters 1, 5 and
12
Week 7
Lisa Maher, Sexed Work
Prior to class, please view American History X at Hornbake
Library.
Week 8
Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?
Week 9
NO READINGS! BRING TWO COPIES OF FIRST DRAFT TO CLASS!
Week 10
Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance
Prior to class, please view Blood In Blood Out at Hornbake
Library.
BRING FRIENDLY COMMENTS ON YOUR PARTNER'S PAPER TO CLASS!
Week 11
Meda Chesney-Lind, Girls, Delinquency, and Juvenile Justice
Reminder: last week to attend a NO MORE YOUTH
JAILS! meeting.
Week 12
Rena Fraden, Imagining Medea
Prior to class, please view Girlhood at Hornbake Library.
Week 13
Student presentations.
Week 14
Student presentations.
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