GWS 395

Grinnell College
Fall 2024 

Description

Prisons are perhaps the most rigidly sex-segregated institutions in contemporary society, and yet feminist critiques of mass incarceration have yet to receive widespread attention. Given the long afterlife of U.S. slavery as well as present-day disparities, scholarly and popular conversations about the prison industrial complex have rightly centered issues of race and class—however, an intersectional feminist perspective is necessary to address the fact that women have become the fastest-growing demographic of people incarcerated in the United States, with particular consequences for those multiply marginalized on the basis of sexuality, language, disability, education, citizenship status, or age. Gender presents unique challenges related to healthcare, interpersonal responsibilities, and experiences of trauma, but precisely because they comprise a relatively small percentage of the prison population, women and LGBTQ+ people are often overlooked and denied equitable access to even the meager services available behind bars. Starting with the history of women’s incarceration in the Midwest, GWS 395 will build toward discussion of policy issues in Iowa, including debates over juvenile justice, indeterminate sentencing, and the impact of prisons on rural communities. Centering the voices of currently and formerly incarcerated people, Abolitionist Feminisms also provides context for the broader movement to end our reliance on policing and incarceration, including prisoner solidarity and transformative justice.

Learning Goals

• Trace how the prison industrial complex emerged through and alongside systems of social inequality in the United States, including race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, etc.

• Build a working knowledge of Iowa’s criminal-legal system and engage in constructive, locally grounded debates about current policy issues from an intersectional perspective.

• Serve as ethical witnesses for first-hand accounts of incarceration, especially as these are shaped by interconnected manifestations of both structural and interpersonal violence.

• Collectively imagine a world free from coercion and control, freeing up space to envision alternative queer and feminist approaches to accountability, justice, and repair.

Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies

GWSS at Grinnell College provides a feminist lens to examine lived experience and diverse ways of being. In this program, faculty, staff, and students build an interdisciplinary learning community that examines power as well as pathways of potential in our interconnected world. The GWSS curriculum and cocurricular opportunities cultivate feminist critiques and unleash feminist imaginations to foster forms of social responsibility attuned to the dignity and wellbeing of all. In our praxis, we are committed to partnering with other programs and offices to promote equity, inclusion, and belonging on campus. For more information on curricula and other opportunities see the GWSS website.

Required Materials

• Michelle Daniel Jones and Elizabeth Angeline Nelson, eds. 2023. Who Would Believe a Prisoner? Indiana Women’s Carceral Institutions 1848-1920. The New Press.

• Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie, eds. 2022. Abolition. Feminism. Now. Haymarket Books.

Recommended Materials

• Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, eds. 2020. Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement. AK Press.

• Victoria Law, 2021. Prisons Make Us Safer And 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration. AK Press.

Assessments

In Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994), bell hooks argues that “a more flexible grading process must go hand in hand with a transformed classroom.” As a course in Abolitionist Feminisms, we will strive to enact a nonhierarchical, noncoercive sharing of knowledge oriented toward ending white supremacist capitalist cisheteropatriarchy along with all forms of domination and oppression. Drawing on philosophies of alternative assessment, this class will emphasize written and verbal feedback from peers as well as the instructor. Regular letter grades will only be assigned at midterm and end of the semester rather than on individual assignments.

Late work will generally not be accepted without prior arrangement, but I am willing to offer extensions and develop alternative plans for completion on a case-by-case basis. Students may use any standard citation style, however references must be correct and consistent. Be sure to provide attribution for others’ ideas and help with your work as well as direct quotes. I cannot review complete drafts prior to submission, but I am happy to discuss work in progress during office hours or by appointment. You are encouraged to make use of Grinnell’s academic resources, including the Writing, Reading, and Speaking Center, Data Analysis & Social Inquiry Lab, Vivero Digital Fellows, and the Libraries.

Required Tasks

Complete all of the following to earn a “B” grade

• Attendance & Participation – Students are expected to be present, on-time and prepared for each class session. Complete the reading or thoroughly explore the assigned sources then prepare comments or questions for discussion. You may also be asked to complete writing activities or engage with online media, see the Course Schedule for details. Especially because GWS 395 is experiential and discussion-based, active engagement is essential for building class community. However, feminist pedagogy also acknowledges that we bring our whole human selves to the process of learning. Each student will therefore be allotted two unexcused absences requiring no explanation, which can be used on any day except when you are scheduled to present. If you miss two or more consecutive classes, please check in with the instructor to arrange make-up work.

• Myths Presentation – Once during the semester, each student will design a short lecture focusing on one chapter of your choice from Victoria Law’s book, “Prisons Make Us Safer” And 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration. In approximately 15-20 minutes, provide your classmates with an overview of the misconception at hand, supplemented by additional research to bridge connections with our course. The objective is to help your classmates acquire a foundational understanding of the criminal-legal system and practice responding to disinformation. You should incorporate an intersectional feminist perspective on the content presented, focusing the axes of identity most relevant to that particular myth. Please also incorporate a recent news story, first-person account, or other illustrative example that more accurately represents the topic under discussion. References can be shared via the discussion board thread for this assignment on PioneerWeb.

• Teach-In Project – For the culminating task in GWS 395, students will organize a one-day political education session to educate our campus community about Abolitionist Feminisms. To develop your organizing abilities, preparations for this event will take place collaboratively over the semester with students organized into various committees to coordinate planning, promotion, technical support, etc. Content for the teach-in will be drawn from the list of scholarly books below, one of which you will read with a partner and then “translate” for a non-academic audience using a zine, podcast, digital essay, or other creative format. The genre and structure of this assignment are open-ended; you are welcome to draw on existing skills and allocate work among the group members based on your strengths and interests. Each project should 1) thoroughly address its assigned book including paratexts, close/distant reading, and counterarguments; 2) make abolitionist feminism accessible to communities with diverse positionalities, skillsets, and investments; and 3) actively engage audiences both in person during the teach-in and online.

Teach-In Project Texts

• Liat Ben-Moshe, 2020. Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition

• Nell Bernstein, 2016. Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison

• Michelle Goodwin, 2020. Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood

• Regina Kunzel, 2008. Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality 

• Talitha L. LeFlouria, 2015. Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South

• Jennifer Turner, 2020. The Prison Cell: Embodied and Everyday Spaces of Incarceration

• Judith Pallot, 2012. Gender, Geography, and Punishment: Experience of Women in Carceral Russia

• Beth E. Richie, 1996. Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Black Women

• Luana Ross, 1998. Inventing the Savage: The Social Construction of Native American Criminality

• Eric A. Stanley, 2011. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex

Timeline

• Monday, September 9 – overview texts, rank preferences, and organize groups

• Monday, September 23 – background research, plan for division of labor

• Monday September 30 – distance reading report, physical and digital library visits

• Monday, October 28 – close reading report including annotations and follow-up queries

• Monday, November 11 – assessment of the text and proposal for teach-in session

• Monday, December 11 – teach-in open to the campus community featuring projects

Supplementary Tasks

Along with the required assignments outlined above, students in GWS 395 have the option to extend our study of Abolitionist Feminism in line with your particular skills and interests. Completing any of the supplementary tasks listed below will raise your final grade by a half-letter such that one task equates to a B+ grade, two tasks equates to a A- grade, and three tasks equates to an A grade. Students are also welcome to discuss alternative options for this assignment such as attending a relevant event either on or off campus. In any case, utilize the Discussion Board on Pweb to post at least one substantive paragraph describing how you engaged with the prompt. Students seeking an A grade a strongly encouraged to complete at least one supplementary task prior to Fall Break, but submissions will remain open through the last day of classes.

• ICIW Research Requests – Periodically, students enrolled in Literary Analysis (ENG 120) at Mitchellville may ask for assistance locating additional sources related to their coursework. Because they cannot access the internet, Grinnellians at ICIW rely on campus partners to facilitate their engagement with the Libraries. These requests will be distributed in class on a rolling basis, however please only volunteer if you can commit to completing it within one week. Depending on need, ICIW students may ask for specific items or more general information about a topic. Utilize your advanced GWSS research skills to compile at least one but no more than three sources for each request. Along with posting to the Discussion Board, you must submit paper copies of everything to the instructor. Please include a cover page summarizing how you answered the request and providing accurate MLA citations.
• Self-Care Toolkit – Sustaining engagement with Abolitionist Feminisms necessitates intentionality about how we process difficult information. GWSS students are often skilled at talking about issues such as mass incarceration or gender-based violence, but we cannot rely solely on intellectualization. For this supplementary task, please practice and then share about something from your own self-care toolkit. As Sara Ahmed describes in Living a Feminist Life, the items in our toolkits may be individual/communal, physical/ephemeral, etc. Please describe your own experience and offer a beginner-friendly guide for your classmates who may be interested in experimenting with this strategy for self-care.
• News & Policy – Though GWS 395 offers students an introduction to the criminal-legal system, these institutions differ a great deal across locations and are constantly evolving. As you learn more about Abolitionist Feminisms, keep an eye out for current events related to our course either in mainstream news outlets or dedicated publications like The Marshall Project. You may also search for a recent source that relates to an issue or location that you want to learn more about. See the Libraries website for access to newspapers as well as the subject guides for GWSS, Law, and/or Policy Studies.
  

  Policies & Procedures

  Communication – Students should be attentive to your email as well as our course page on PioneerWeb for updates and information. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions, concerns, or suggestions. I will try to respond to all messages within twenty-four hours and expect the same from students. I also encourage you drop in during my office hours or schedule an individual appointment—along with getting acquainted, this creates an opportunity for me to tailor the class based on your specific needs and interests. If you would prefer to meet at another time, in a different location, or virtually, just let me know.
  
  Absences – As outlined above, each student is allotted two unexcused absences to use if and when you see fit over the course of the semester. If you need to be absent for beyond those two allotted days, please let me know as soon as possible. As a sign of respect for our learning community, do not attend class if you are feeling ill or have been instructed to self-isolate. Students must also adhere to the College’s latest public health guidance, including masking as directed. If you can anticipate any absences due to religious observance, athletic participation, or another co-curricular conflict, let me know within the first three weeks. Any time you miss class, you are responsible for meeting with a classmate to go over what you missed and arranging a plan for make-up work with the instructor.
  
  Academic Honesty – GWS 395 will follow the College’s policies as outlined in the Student Handbook. Review this document carefully and feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss its applicability to our course. Students are generally encouraged to collaborate on readings as well as assignments. Please acknowledge any significant outside assistance you receive from peers, other faculty, or on-campus resources as part of your submission. The use of tools like ChatGPT without explicit prior permission constitutes academic misconduct and may be subject to disciplinary action. If you would like to employ artificial intelligence as part of your work on assignments for GWS 395, please arrange a meeting with the instructor in advance of submission.
  
  Copyright & Privacy – All lectures, readings, and other materials used in this course are protected by the intellectual property rights of their authors or creators. You are welcome to take notes on, download, and make copies of anything posted to PioneerWeb for your own personal use, however you may not reproduce or distribute course materials outside our class community without express consent. Students are the owners of their own work, and thus these same policies apply to writing and digital assignments produced by you and your classmates. Unless you have an academic accommodation stating otherwise, class sessions or meetings may not be recorded for any reason.
  
  Accommodations – Grinnell College is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities. This policy covers both visible and non-apparent disabilities, including chronic illnesses as well as learning differences and psychiatric conditions. If you have not done so already, please contact Coordinator of Student Disability Resources Jae Baldree to make a request. Any registered student is encouraged to meet with the instructor at the beginning of the semester to discuss their accommodations and collaborate on tailoring the class to meet your needs. In accordance with principles of feminist pedagogy and universal design, GWS 395 strives to be an inclusive for all students. Regardless of official diagnoses or documentation, everyone is invited to discuss strategies for making this class accessible. Please let me know how I can help you succeed.
  
  Academic Support – If you have other needs not addressed through disability accommodations, please let me know so that we can work together to create the best possible learning environment. In some cases, I will recommend consulting with the Academic Advising staff, who can help connect you with other campus resources. If I notice that you are encountering difficulty and I have reached out to you and not received a response, or if you have missed multiple class sessions and are not meeting deadlines, I will submit an academic alert. This notifies you of my concern along with Academic Advising; for more information, see their website.
  
  Diversity & Inclusion – As your professor, I am dedicated to creating a classroom environment that encourages equitable participation for all students regardless of race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, national origin, political affiliation, disability, religion, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected category. To fulfill the College’s mission of social responsibility requires more than tolerating diversity—we must cultivate a learning community that values each person’s unique experiences, identities, and beliefs. By virtue of living in a white supremacist, capitalist, and cisheterosexist patriarchy, all of us have some degree of internalized oppression and none of us has all the answers (including the professor). Allowing for mistakes and moments of discomfort will help advance our shared goal of building more just world through generosity, mutual respect, accountability, and an openness to repair.
  
  Content Note – The materials assigned for this course engage a range of challenging topics, including accounts of interpersonal and structural violence. Students enrolled in GWS 395 should expect to engage with content that reflects the lives of currently and formerly incarcerated women, including experiences such as sexual abuse, medical neglect, and self-harm as well as racism, classism, and trans/homophobia. Throughout the course we will discuss strategies for engaging with difficult material, but please be aware this course involves a substantial emotional commitment. Students are encouraged to meet with the instructor about any questions or concerns along with utilizing professional support resources like SHAW or the CRSSJ. You are always welcome to step out of class to regroup and/or adapt lesson plans to accommodate your access needs. Sustained engagement with Abolitionist Feminism requires intentionality—as Audre Lorde reminds us, “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.” 
  
  Acknowledgements – Thank you to the Grinnell’s Liberal Arts in Prison Program staff, Emily Guenther and Molly Campe, who make everything about this work possible. Through our MAP on Feminist Mental Health Justice and the Prison Industrial Complex, Cadance Hawk, Sage Gladstone, Agatha Fusco, and Chikako Inoue have made invaluable contributions to the development of this syllabus. Finally, I am grateful to past and present students at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women as well as the Newton Correctional Facility for their trust, generosity, and commitment to learning even under the most challenging circumstances.