Abolition is Feminism, Feminism is Abolition Conference

As abolition increasingly enters mainstream conversations, it is often disconnected from—or even presented as oppositional to—feminist theory and organizing.  Join abolitionist scholars, feminist policy advocates, and organizers on the frontlines of struggles to divest from policing and punishment for a three-day conversation about how feminism has shaped historic and present-day struggles to defund and abolish police, prisons, and borders and feminist visions for safer communities.

April 8-10, 2022
Alumnae Field, Scripps College
Registration is required for both in-person and virtual participants: https://rb.gy/9eacrp

Due to updated health and safety guidance from Scripps College, there will be no food service available. Please plan to bring your own water and food to the event. Surgical-grade masks for all attendees are required.

If you are feeling ill, please plan to attend the conference virtually. Links will be sent to registrants to ensure access to all the weekend’s sessions.

The conference is free and open to the public.
ASL and Spanish interpretation for Keynote Conversation and Saturday sessions.
This event will be held outdoors under a tent.
For speaker bios, click here.

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Friday, April 8
Opening Conversations

 3-4:30 pm 

Keynote Conversation

Join Interrupting Criminalization co-founders and long time anti-violence and abolitionist organizers Mariame Kaba* and Andrea J. Ritchie for a conversation about movements to defund and abolish policing through a Black feminist lens, offering a sneak peek into their forthcoming book No More Police: A Case for Abolition.

4:30-5:30 pm 

Student Roundtable

Janet Asante, Scripps College

Shanie Kalikow, Pitzer College

Lily Kraft, Pitzer College

Lily Lucas, Scripps College

Uma Nagarajan-Swenson, Scripps College

Callie Radecki, Pitzer College

Kathryn Wangthamkua, Pitzer College

 

Saturday, April 9
  Abolition Feminism in Action

10 am-12 pm Campaigns to Defund Police, Courts and Prisons:  Feminist Roots, Leadership, and Futures

10:15-10:45 am

History Roundtable ~ How has Black Feminism historically shaped anti-carceral movements?

Sarah Haley*, UCLA and Columbia, Cops Off Campus

Treva Lindsay, The Ohio State University

10:45 am – 12:30 pm

Present and Future Feminist Abolitionist Organizing

Kandace Montgomery, Black Visions Collective*

Angélica Cházaro, University of Washington School of Law, Decriminalize Seattle

Robyn Maynard*, author, Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present

Harsha Walia*, No One Is Illegal, author, Undoing Border Imperialism, Border and Rule

Woods Ervin*, Critical Resistance  (recording)

Ivette Alé*, JusticeLA, Dignity & Power NOW

Toni-Michelle Williams, Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative

Erica Meiners*, Northeastern Illinois University

Richie Reseda, Question Culture

12:30-1:30 pm – Lunch Break

1:30-3 pm   Countering Carceral Feminism and Carceral Humanism:  

Panel:  Abolitionist Feminist Organizing

Alisa Bierria, UCLA, Survived and Punished

Hyejin Shim,* Asian Pacific Institute on Gender Based Violence

Mimi Kim, California State University Long Beach, Creative Interventions, INCITE!

Leigh Goodmark,* University of Maryland Carey School of Law

Victoria Law*, author, Prisons Make Us Safer and 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration

Romina Garcia, University of California, Riverside

3-3:30 pm – Break

3:30-3:45 pm  Dancing Through Prison Walls Performance by Claremont Colleges Students, Choreographed inside Norco Prison (Scripps Dance Tent Jaqua Quadrangle)

3:50-5:30 pm   Feminist Resistance at Carceral Intersections: Immigration, Family Regulation, Medical/Public Health, Surveillance. 

3:50-4:20 pm

Abolish the Family Police

Dorothy Roberts*, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

4:20-5:30 pm

Panel:  Organizing at the Intersections

Lee Ann Wang, UCLA, Scripps ’03

Cara Page*, Changing Frequencies

Nadine Naber*, University of Illinois at Chicago, Mamas

Amanda Alexander*, Detroit Justice Center

Nana Gyamfi*, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, National Conference of Black Lawyers

Cinthya Rodriguez* – Mijente

Emi Kane, Allied Media Projects

Michaé De La Cuadra, TransLatin@ Coalition

Sunday, April 10
Building Abolitionist Agendas:  How Are We Creating Conditions for Abolitionist Organizing to Thrive?

10-11:30 am

Roundtable:  Abolitionist Policy-Making Principles

Emily Harris + Andrea Ritchie, facilitators

Amber-Rose Howard , Californians United for a Responsible Budget

Freddie Francis, Young Women’s Freedom Center, Transgender Advocacy Group

April Grayson, Young Women’s Freedom Center

Marbre Stahly-Butts*, Law For Black Lives

Amanda Alexander, Detroit Justice Center

Colby Lenz, UCLA Center for Research on Women, California Coalition for Women Prisoners

11:30-12:30 pm – Lunch Break

12:30-2 pm 

Panel:  Domestic Violence and Mental Health Crisis Response, Prevention, Intervention and Healing

Mimi Kim, California State University Long Beach, Creative Interventions, INCITE!

Shannon Perez-Darby, Accountable Communities Consortium

Amber Akemi Piatt, Human Impact Partners

2-2:30 pm – Break

2:30-4 pm

Current Policy Initiatives

Fellows and alums of the Women’s Foundation California Beatriz Solis Policy Institute (SPI) discuss current work on practical applications of policy advocacy in the social justice movement.

ari vargas, Program Manager, SPI State, Women’s Foundation California, facilitator

April Grayson, SPI 2022, working on AB 2761, ensuring greater transparency in the recording of a death involving public safety officials or occurring while a person is in the custody of public safety officials.

Toya Vick, SPI 2022, working on the Riverside Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, which would expand access to both public and private housing options for formerly incarcerated people and their families.

Marlene Sanchez, SPI 2008, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Ginny Oshiro, SPI 2021, Project Rebound CSUF, Transformative In-Prison Workgroup 

*Virtual Presentations

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Co-hosted by the Intercollegiate Feminist Center for Teaching, Research and Engagement, Interrupting Criminalization, Women’s Foundation California—Feminists for Racial, Economic, and Gender Justice, and Race, Gender and Human Rights Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation, with co-sponsorship at Scripps College: Feminist, Gender, Sexuality Studies; Politics; Writing Program; O’Brien Distinguished Professorship; Backstrand Chair funds; Office of Public Events & Community Programs.  At Pomona College:  Religious Studies, Wig Fund, Public Policy Analysis.  At Claremont McKenna College:  History Department.  At Harvey Mudd College:  Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts.  At Pitzer College:  Institute for Global/Local Action & Study.  At Claremont Graduate University:  Applied Gender Studies.  Intercollegiate:  Justice Education Initiative; 5C Prison Abolition Collective.

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