Abolition and Queer Justice: Queer Criminalization and Criminology’s Investments in the Police

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

Abolition and Queer Justice is scheduled to be released in December 2025 and it issues a powerful call to action: queer justice requires the abolition of the prison industrial complex. Bringing together a range of historical, pedagogical, and personal essays that call readers into the complex and hopeful work of abolition, this collective project highlights a range of anti-carceral resistance work. Intersectional and actionable by design, Abolition and Queer Justice features the voices of scholars and activists in queer criminology, inviting students, scholars, and activists to join together to advance truly transformative goals and projects.

This is the first of several panels featuring contributors to this critical and timely text.

Sub Unit

• Area X. Critical Criminology / 73. Queer Criminology

Individual Presentations

• Dismembering the PowerMonger: A BlaQueer Feminist Approach to Abolition - Toniqua C. Mikell, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

• “At Any Given Point in Your Life, You Can Be Wrong About Everything”: Queer and Trans Perspectives, Community Care, and the Abolitionist Imagination - Max Osborn, Villanova University

• From Prison to Police Abolition: Challenging Queer Criminology’s Investments in the Police - Emma Russell, La Trobe University

Chair

• Aimee Wodda, Pacific University

Discussant

• Allyn Walker, Saint Mary's University