GSWS Graduate Conference: Abolition

Ruth Wilson Gilmore states “Abolition is about abolishing the conditions under which Pr*son became the solution to problems, rather than abolishing the buildings we call prisons.” Abolition exists within the context of racialized, gendered, and ableist constructs of relating to one another as well. Angela Davis asks, “How can we produce a sense of belonging to communities that is not evaporated by the onslaught of our everyday routines?” Furthermore, Mia Mingus argues, “Any disability justice work should be in alignment and solidarity with abolition. And any abolition work should be in alignment and solidarity with disability justice. Disability justice is abolition work and abolition work is disability justice work.” The context of abolition is not just a question of prisons or the Pr*son industrial complex, but the very intricate ties people have to one another, the environment, labor, capital, and the uneven delineations of surveillance and control that stretch across the mundane and spectacular aspects of everyday life.

Queer, trans, and feminist imaginations across literature, art, geography, Indigenous studies, critical race theory, disability studies, queer of color critique, trans studies, and Black feminist theory have argued for abolition across the embodied, social, cultural, dystopian, and futurist realities of the networks that we move through daily. An abolitionist reality requires not only a re-orientation away from institutions and borders, but also requires a revaluation of labor, dependency, interdependency, as they relate to capital and exchange. What does an abolitionist future look like beyond utopian simplicity that considers the material realities of race, gender, sexuality, nationality, disability, and mobility?

The hybrid conference will take place April 15th, 2023 and will feature undergraduate and graduate research by students across the University of Pennsylvania and surrounding institutions as well as a morning workshop and a keynote speaker. Participants will be asked to state their preference on in person or remote presentations. Remote presentations can be pre-recorded but must be captioned.

Accessibility: All presentations, except for the workshop, will be available in hybrid form, with captioned text on Zoom for the duration of the day. Please register ahead of time even if you are attending on Zoom so that we can ensure adequate accessibility for you including but not limited to ASL and live captioning. We ask participants to refrain from wearing scent based products on the day of the conference to support scent sensitive individuals in attendance. The LGBT Center is ADA accessible. If you have any additional access needs, please email [email protected].

9:00-9:45 Breakfast

9:50-10:50 Workshop

11:00-12:15 Presentations pt 1

12:15-1:15 Lunch

1:15-2:15 Presentations pt 2

2:30-3:30 Keynote from Elias Rodriques

This event is made possible by the generosity of the Center of Experimental Ethnography, Penn LGBT Center, The University of Pennsylvania Spanish Department, and The University of Pennsylvania Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Program.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Penn LGBT Center, 3907 Spruce Street (Robert Schoenberg Carriage House), Philadelphia, United States