Towards Queer Intersectional Abolitionism in the Study of School+Community Collaboration

• In Event: Reimagining Transformative Possibilities for Higher Education

Abstract

In this paper we ask what a queer intersectional abolitionist framework for educational analysis can look like?; and, what can this framework tell us about school and community collaboration? Based on a reading of queer, intersectional and abolitionist theories, as well as a study of school and community collaboration models in Philadelphia, PA, we articulate dimensions of our framework, describe how we mobilize this framework in our case studies, and reflect on the analytic and political possibilities that this framework move us toward as our research study gets underway. What we have found in mobilizing our framework is that most collaboration models continue to operate in a service model that leave intersecting forces of oppression intact. Working in an abolitionist stance moves us to unsettle these forces and encourages us to radically reimagine transformative possibilities, including moving from school AND community collaboration toward “people-driven transformative school+community pueblos.”

Authors

• Edwin Mayorga, Swarthmore College

• Maya Henry, Swarthmore College