submitted by koh@augsburg.edu
Are you interested in abolition democracy?
If so, perhaps you would like to join a student committee that is planning an April 2021 panel event, “Abolition Democracy as our Moral Compass: A “Radical Imaginary” This event would be generously supported by Paul ’63 and LaVonne (Olson) Batalden ’63, and Stephen ’67 and Sandra Batalden.
Critical race theorist and abolition scholar Stovall (2018) invites us into “a radical imaginary” that “challenges us to think about the world as it is while committing to a process that systemically changes it” (p. 53). Students who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in traditionally White institutions (TWIs) must navigate a covert White supremacist infrastructure (Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, 2005) and a White milieu in higher education (for example, “White talk moves,” see Finders & Kwame-Ross, 2020). This proposed panel seeks to imagine higher education in the context of abolition democracy (DuBois, 1998; Davis, 2005).
This panel discussion will feature Professor David Stovall and additional student selected panelists. The event will be shaped and organized with Augsburg students under the guidance of the Batalden Scholar in Applied Ethics, Prof. Bibiana Koh. Students who serve on the committee will receive some kind of recognition for their time.
If interested, please email Prof. Bibiana Koh at koh@augsburg.edu.