What might it mean to seriously prioritize anti-carceral liberation from within anthropology classrooms? This is the question that inspired our “Abolitionist Pedagogies” roundtable at the 2023 American Anthropological Association meeting in Toronto, and the question that drives our wider praxis as anthropologists and educators. Building from that conversation, this series intends not only to think theoretically about the (im)possibilities for anti-carcerality in university spaces, but also to share practical tools and strategies for doing literal abolitionist work—i.e., to engage in actions that contribute to the liberation of all people from prisons and their adjacent institutions—as anthropology instructors.

The term “abolitionist pedagogy” comes from Black feminist scholars, educators, and activists who highlight the role that classrooms often play in upholding systemic inequalities, but also as potential spaces to disrupt systems of racial injustice and carceral violence and to experiment with restorative and transformative justice models (cf. Love 2019). We recognize that abolition isn’t a metaphor, a thought exercise, or a “turn” in our discipline. We think with adjacent work toward anti-racist, anti-colonial, and equitable pedagogy. But we more specifically aim to join the collective abolitionist labor to excise systems of policing, surveillance, and imprisonment that disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, Queer, and other marginalized communities. We question how we might be positioned as educators, and more specifically anthropology educators, within that larger movement. This effort sits on the boundary between education and activism. It takes place in university classrooms, prison classrooms, community spaces, and in administrative meetings. It incorporates creative strategies of syllabus building, grading policies, community partnerships, and beyond. This series aims to provide a platform for grappling with the possibilities and incommensurabilities of abolitionist work from within the institutions where we teach. But rather than a prescription for action, each contribution is an invitation. We offer a “teaching tool” with each piece, along with a prompt for further conversation on social media, to bring more voices and possibilities into this conversation.