submitted by koh@augsburg.edu
This co-sponsored panel event (Batalden Applied Ethics/Augsburg Student Day Government) will feature David Stovall (Professor of Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois, Chicago) and student panelists. Critical race theorist and abolition scholar Professor Stovall 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” (2018, 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 move us toward abolition democracy (DuBois, 1998; Davis, 2005) using Ella Baker’s participatory democracy model.
For us to embrace abolition democracy as a TWI, we must all be held accountable. Indeed, abolitionist Bettina Love (2019) has argued for accountability: “Abolitionist teaching asks us to question the piece of the oppressor that lives in us all” (p. 122).“ Thus, there is a moral imperative to use abolition praxis – defined as a “practice theory of change” (Roberts, 2019) – to guide our collective “radical imaginary.”
Pre-registration is required: https://augsburg.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwuce6orDgsGdFOtRr0mYkMB5rx_YDrkbtn
The Batalden/ Augsburg Student Day Government planning committee includes (in alphabetical order by last name): Zoe Barany, Berlynn Bitengo, Thin Thin Kaing, Bibiana Koh and, Knaunong “Birdy” Xiong).
Funding for this public event is generously provided by Paul ’63 and LaVonne (Olson) Batalden ’63, and Stephen ’67 and Sandra Batalden.
https://augsburg.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwuce6orDgsGdFOtRr0mYkMB5rx_YDrkbtn
