Carceral Geographies

The University, Abolition, and Decolonial Theory and Praxis

Event Description

On March 13, 2023, the American Cultures Center and the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley hosted this discussion focusing on the University as a site of contestation and contradiction. Starting from its settler colonial origins and logics, the speakers engage what it means to participate in decolonial and abolitionist work at the site of the university. What are its repressive logics and histories? How might we find cracks in its structure to organize?

The event was part of the Staff as Students of Social...

Long Arc of Freedom Struggles

Event Description

On March 8, 2023 the American Cultures Center and the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley hosted the first event in the Staff as Students of Social Justice (SSSJ) public discussion series, “Aspirations of Material Anti-Racism: What’s Next?”

The Long Arc of Freedom Struggles is a discussion of Dan Berger’s latest publication,...

Fall 2022

About the Program

The 'Staff as Students of Social Justice' (SSSJ) Program is an opportunity for campus staff (from the Division of Undergraduate Education and beyond) to audit an American Cultures course and participate in discussions about timely and important topics. Piloted in Fall 2020, the SSSJ Program is a unique opportunity to learn first-hand from leading scholars and American Cultures instructors about the intersections of race, ethnicity, and gender; dig into subjects of personal interests; and build...

Summer 2021 SSSJ Final Projects

About the Program

The 'Staff as Students of Social Justice' (SSSJ) Program is an opportunity for up to 25 staff per semester (from the Division of Undergraduate Education and beyond) to audit an American Cultures course and participate in discussions about timely and important topics. Piloted in Fall 2020, the SSSJ Program is a unique opportunity to learn first-hand from leading scholars and American Cultures instructors about the intersections of race, ethnicity, and gender; dig into subjects of personal interests;...

Language Guide for Communicating About Those Involved In The Carceral System

About

Language is not merely descriptive, it is creative. For too long we have borne the burden of having to recreate our humanity in the eyes of those who would have us permanently defined by a system that grew directly out of the institution of American slavery, an institution that depended on the dehumanization of the people it enslaved. It is in this spirit that we, the formerly incarcerated and system-impacted academics who identify as the Underground Scholars Initiative (USI) at the University of California, Berkeley, call on the media, students, and public to...

Fighting Mass Incarceration

With the sudden trendiness of opposing mass incarceration, Dr. James Kilgore will critically examine the idea that bipartisan unity and legislative change hold the key to transforming the criminal justice system. Dr. Kilgore will outline how his book, 'Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of our Time', (The New Press, 2015) and what it aims to achieve as well...

Cal Day 2018: From Incarceration to Education: Meet the Students Behind the FITE Film

About

On April 17, 2018, as part of the campus's Cal Day programming, the Underground Scholars Initiative and the American Cultures Center held a screening of 'From Incarceration to Education' (FITE...

Cal Day

Cal Day attendants and tents near Sather GateEvery year the American Cultures Center celebrates the accomplishments of its faculty members and undergraduates. In the past we have hosted events featuring Engineering Scholars as Engaged Scholars (ES²), community partners, Cal alumni as well as current undergraduates.

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