Queering Prison Abolition, Now?

We occasionally publish “Currents” in American Quarterly, which are intended as timely forms of writing that contribute and intervene in contemporary issues of importance to scholars in American studies. It is our hope that “Currents” will provide a forum for debates over the directions of the field and how the interdisciplinary field of American studies defines itself and is defined by others. The following is a conversation among the intellectuals and activists Eric A. Stanley, Dean Spade, Andrea J. Ritchie, Joey L. Mogul, and Kay Whitlock, about queer abolitionist politics. The scholars and organizers involved wanted to mark this particular moment as a coalescence of years of organizing, struggling, and building a radically queer abolitionist politics. The piece is written jointly, to highlight how this analysis, and abolition in general, is a collective endeavor. The following conversation was conducted by e-mail in November 2011.