About

This working group began with an informal meet-up at the AAA meetings in 2022 in Seattle. Co-founders Rebekah Ciribassi and Trishna Senapaty, then graduate students and instructors within the Prison Education Program at Cornell University, were hoping to build new spaces of collaboration around abolition. As people with anti-carceral politics, prison education program instructors, and early-career scholars interested in doing abolitionist research, they were both looking for ways to connect with colleagues across abolitionist teaching, research, and activism. 

During and after that first meeting, a network formed with people who were also interested in building a mutually supportive community of abolitionist anthropologists. Priorities included possibilities for collaborative research, learning strategies for abolitionist pedagogy, and connecting with community activist organizations. The group has hosted several virtual meetings, roundtables and events at the 2023 AAAs, and a forthcoming online series about abolitionist pedagogy.

Rather than focusing on becoming a formal working group under the umbrella of AAA, we spent much of 2024 building this group as an independent network. This website represents our attempt to develop a more sustainable way to communicate and share resources across the Working Group. Moving forward, we are prioritizing flexibility and the ability for everyone in the group to contribute equally.

We recognize that there are a lot of other brilliant abolitionist organizing efforts out there. Our hope is that this group will support those efforts from the position of anthropology, and bring more anthropologists into collective abolitionist work.

If you are interested in joining the working group, click here, or contact us at abolitionistanthropology@gmail.com.