On Abolition (Virtual) Symposium

“On Abolition,” a 2-day symposium co-sponsored by the Department of Romance Studies, the Franklin Humanities Institute, and the Office of Global Affairs. The symposium will be held on February 2-3, 2023, on Zoom. You are warmly invited to register here: https://duke.is/cjdsf

This symposium assembles a community of interlocuters to think together about what the work of abolition requires and what futures it might bring into being. Taking both a transnational and transhistorical approach, we hope to foster a conversation about the long durée of thought, activism, and organizing against chattel slavery, imperialism, policing and carceral regimes in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. The following questions undergird our collective meditation: How have Black, Indigenous, (and) queer communities thought about and worked towards the end of oppressive social and political structures? What creative practices support and make possible abolitionist futures? By bringing together scholars and practitioners who come to the work of abolition through various entry points including poetry, spirituality, restorative justice, Black feminism, Queer Studies, and Visual Studies, we hope that this conversation will illuminate productive paths for building more just and equitable worlds.

Thursday, February 2, 11:00am-12:30pm EST

Panel 1: “The Everyday Practice of Abolition”

Sindiswa Busuku (University of Cape Town)

Ashon Crawley (University of Virginia)

Fania Noël (The New School)

Thursday, February 2, 1:30pm-3:00pm EST

Panel 2: “The Durée of Abolitionist Futures”

Kellie Carter Jackson (Wellesley College)

Gregory Pierrot (University of Connecticut)

Vanessa Thompson (Queen’s University)

Friday, February 3, 11:00am-12:00pm EST

Roundtable: Fighting, Dreaming, Creating

All panelists