Defunding the Police

In this time of global pandemic, the expression “I can’t breathe” carries a dual meaning: it is both a tell-tale symptom of COVID-19, and a now-familiar mantra of the Black Lives Matter movement, echoing the final words of Eric Garner and George Floyd. This seminar is dedicated to an organic, accessible, and robust discussion of why the social justice initiative to “Defund the Police” is possible, necessary, and desirable. What does it mean (and what would it look like) to defund the police, and how does the current discourse track in academic vs. non-academic spaces? Who is this movement for—and who among us are still unaccounted for? Our seminar is comprised of individuals rooted in activism, academia, and the arts, who are calling in from across the United States. They bring their experience and expertise not only to imagine American society without the current policing system, but also to think beyond prisons, punitivity, and exclusionary practices in our institutions and movements.

SPEAKERS

Steph Hopkins​, Durham activist, member of BYP100 and Durham Beyond Policing; J Kameron Carter​, Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, author of forthcoming book The Religion of Whiteness: An Apocalyptic Lyric; Vincente SubVersive Perez​, UC Berkeley PhD Student, performance poet, activist, and author of B(lack)NESS & LATINI(dad);

Meghan​ McDowell​, Assistant Professor of History, Politics, and Social Justice at Winston-Salem State University, scholar-activist who studies forms of safety and justice that do not rely on policing or prisons;

Stephanie Green​, Duke Undergraduate majoring in Public Policy, and member of Duke Black Coalition Against Policing.

MODERATOR

Jessica Covil