Professor Beth Richie, Professor of African American Studies and Criminology, Law and Justice
University of Illinois at Chicago
February 21, at 5:30 p.m.
212 Sanders Auditorium, Vassar College
"Black Feminist Reflections in Prison Abolition: Lessons from Anti-violence Activism"
Professor Richie will discuss prison abolition from within the context of state and intimate violence toward Black women. With a black feminist treatment, she will consider the political, ideological and applied solutions available to activists.
Professor Richie's scholarly and activist work explores the ways that race/ethnicity and social position affect women's experience of violence and incarceration, focusing on the experiences of African American battered women and sexual assault survivors. Dr. Richie is the author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence and America's Prison Nation (NYU Press, 2012) and Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Black Battered Women (Routledge, 1995). Professor Richie's books and numerous articles examine Black feminism and gender violence, race and criminal justice policy, and the social dynamics around issues of sexuality, prison abolition, and grassroots organizations in African American communities.
Jeffrey Schneider
Chair, Dept. of German Studies
Vassar College
Chair, Dept. of German Studies
Vassar College
jeschneider@vassar.edu