Recent years have witnessed the efflorescence of scholarship on prison abolition and the opportunities it presents for rethinking sociality and the law in diverse communities. Anthropologists have made critical contributions to this scholarship, complementing theory- and advocacy-driven work with empirical studies that center the resistance of people affected by prisons, and their role in perpetuating racial and class-based repression. This panel brings together scholars of the American prison to reflect on the present and future of empirical prison studies, and the importance of linking activism with research that surfaces the experiences of individuals whose lives are shaped by incarceration.
The Section held a virtual business meeting prior to the Annual Meeting.