AFRS 320 - Abolitionist Theory

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Some of the most radical demands for freedom emerge from the most confining spaces of containment. This seminar immerses students in the thought, witness, and writings of outlaws, captives, and exiles – to ask how prophetic figures learn to tell the time of freedom against conventional narratives of modern progress. Readings include selections from David Walker and Nat Turner’s antebellum abolitionism, Assata Shakur and Grace Lee Boggs’s contributions to Cold War era liberation movements, and reflections from the leaderful movements for Black Lives. Students learn to analyze the transformative power of testimony and identify protocols of fugitive acts through the living archive of the abolitionist tradition to closely consider the implications of its speculative ideas of freedom not yet realized. Jasmine Syedullah.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS