Carceral Resistance: From Decolonial Perspectives

Course Description

The US and Canada have high incarceration rates, disproportionately affecting racial minorities, people of colour, and Indigenous communities, with Black Americans and Indigenous people making up 33% and 50% of inmates, respectively (Sawyer & Wagner, 2022; Public Safety Canada, 2020). The UK government's insufficient Indigenous identification leads to inadequate data on Indigenous women and other marginalized groups experiencing high incarceration rates. As the data suggests, tailored reforms are needed to address over-incarceration in Indigenous and marginalized communities and improve criminal justice systems. In my opinion, Courses like 'Carceral Resistance: From Decolonial Perspectives' can help address structural biases and provide students with knowledge about resistance and reform tactics to address the over-incarceration of these communities.
As an activist professor who supports marginalized people's voices, such as Indigenous, minorities, atheists, LGBTQ, and other diverse groups and communities, from my student and teaching life, I teach the sociology of prison, penology, correction, prison administration, and prison abolition in the Department of Criminology and Police Science, MBSTU, Bangladesh and have been doing research on prison, philosophy of punishment, prison resistance, and prison reform for more than 14 years in Bangladesh and Canada. I am doing doctoral research on ""Prison and Resistance: A Postcolonial Comparative Studies on Indigenous Released Women Political Prisoners in Bangladesh and Canada"" from a postcolonial subaltern feminist lens. This course would align with my personal and professional commitment to them based on my experience and activism in my student and professional teaching life.
Academic programs in criminology, criminal justice, and prison studies often overlook decolonial and postcolonial critiques, neglecting the intersection of colonialism, indigeneity, carceral resistance, and the root causes of incarceration. This course explores the contemporary carceral resistance landscape globally from decolonial and postcolonial perspectives. It examines cases of prisoners' resistance and anti-colonial struggle from Ireland, India, and Brazil, providing a balanced understanding. The course also discusses decolonial theories and postcolonial subaltern theories, grounding it in settler colonialism, white supremacy, and contemporary politics of indigeneity. Through case studies and activists' perspectives, students gain a deeper understanding of power, privilege, and agency in addressing oppressive structures. The course also evaluates critical carceral studies perspectives from abolitionist and indigenous perspectives.
This course aims to teach students about carceral resistance, its historical and theoretical foundations, and its various forms, including grassroots activism, legal strategies, and community organizing. It also covers Indigenous forms of resistance and postcolonial subaltern theories.