Spatial Exclusion as Discipline: Anti-Black Spatial Imaginaries and the Racialized Control of Black Students

• In Event: Fugitive Spaces and Geographies of Spatial Justice throughout Social Contexts of Education

Abstract

This conceptual paper reconceptualizes exclusionary discipline in schools by foregrounding its spatial dimensions. While research has documented how exclusionary disciplinary policies disproportionately impact Black students, we argue that discipline also functions through the everyday regulation, restriction, and removal of Black students from space. Drawing on Black Studies, Black geographies, and carceral theories, this paper situates spatial exclusion as a form of racial control rooted in the afterlives of slavery and the logics of anti-Blackness that structure contemporary schooling. Specifically, we explore how spatial tactics –hallway bans, classroom removal, and desk reassignments– operate to manage behavior and reproduce racialized boundaries of belonging. We conclude by inviting scholars to reimage educational space through imaginaries that center presence, gathering, and liberation over removal.

Authors

• DeMarcus A Jenkins, University of Pennsylvania

• Ayana Cheyenne Colvin, University of Pennsylvania

• Samantha Bello, University of Pennsylvania