Abolition as Freedom

SOC-280B-90

Binghamton University

  • Semester
    Winter 25/26
  • Instructor
    Yeter Tan (P)
  • Start Date
    12-17-2025
  • Total Credits
    4
  • Call to Register
    607-777-6088

Take your class online with SUNY

You will learn the same curriculum as our on-campus students

What does it mean to imagine justice beyond prisons? How can abolition open possibilities for justice that prisons foreclose? What does it mean to understand abolition as both a practice and a vision? What alternative forms of justice are possible? This course analyzes foundations, principles, and potential impact of prison abolition. Throughout the course, we will delve into the historical, political, and economic roots of mass incarceration in the U.S. with a particular focus on its racial and gender disparities. Moving from reform to abolition, we will interrogate the limits of reformist approaches and punitive paradigm and explore abolitionist visions that demand deeper structural change. Through examining incarceration, racial capitalism, gender and justice, and transformative alternatives, the course will encourage students to envision and contribute to a society committed to justice without prisons. The course will focus on building alternatives to prisons and community responses in the present time.
Course Area: Sociology
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Dates: 12-17-2025 - 01-16-2026
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Instructor: Yeter Tan (P)
Local Course ID: 26WI_BIN_SOC280B_90
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