Call For Proposals: International Conference

May 21 – 22, 2021 (Online)

Global Carceral States: Violence, Transgressions and Technologies of Imprisonment

Prisons are a central feature of the lives of millions around the world, and many people are dealing with memories and traumas related to their own imprisonment and/or that of members of their families or communities. Imprisonment remains a central tactic for managing and confining members of populations deemed to be risky, hostile, or superfluous. Techniques of imprisonment are constantly developed, modified and shared, and incarcerated populations continue to be at the receiving end of ever-changing modes of torture and violence. Carcerality, however, is not restricted to the confines of prisons and carceral realities are lived through -amongst others- technologies of surveillance, the erection of bonders and walls, and the ramifications of wars.

Carceralized populations, on the other hand, continue to respond in a multitude of ways to the punitive powers exercised upon them by ruling regimes. Prisoners have long engaged in tactics of resistance, including hunger strikes, inventive and clandestine means of organization, forming communities of solidarity in struggle, engaging in pedagogical knowledge, and through literary and artistic productions. 

We are organizing this conference to reflect upon the current globalized reality, and on imprisonment as one tactic of control, subjugation and dispossession. The conference is also an opportunity to engage with the wide range of resistance tactics and transgressions that prisoners devise against state policies and incarcerating regimes. The themes for proposal are open, with the following suggested themes: modes of violence and torture behind bars; the transnational sharing of carceral practices; sociological aspects of confinement; strategies of resistance; prison literature; political economy of prisons; abolitionist discourses; racial capitalism; global solidarity and carceral landscapes.  

We are inviting contributions from scholars, activists and community members and look forward to having this space of discussion across borders between May 28-29, 2021. Paper proposals (English, Spanish and Arabic) should be submitted by March 8, 2021 through this link: http://tinyurl.com/GlobalCarceralConf2021. Proposals should include a 250-word abstract, and 100-word bio of presenters. 

For more information, please contact the conference organizers:

Basil Farraj: mwatin@birzeit.edu

Alejandro Prado: Alejandro_prado@ucsb.edu

Leila Zonouzi:  zonouzi@ucsb.edu

Looking forwards,

The conference organizers

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