Law’s Violence: Theoretical Foundations and Abolitionist Futures (taught Winter 2023)

 What are the justifications for legal violence in modern states? Is violence foundational to law as such? In a time where movements for the abolition of police and prisons are gaining traction, can we imagine non-violent futures for law? This course seeks to introduce students to these questions and consider some possible answers, drawing on an array of writing from scholars and scholar-activists in the fields of political science, philosophy, law, and beyond. We will begin by examining some foundational theoretical issues and arguments related to law, violence, and politics. We will then turn to thinking about the role of legal violence in the making and perpetuation of forms of race, gender, and class oppression. Finally, we will explore the possibility of law without violence, concluding by engaging directly with a theme that will be in the background throughout the course: the politics of prison and police abolition. Students will gain exposure to a wide variety of approaches and methodologies within political and legal theory, and practice using this battery of resources to shed light on present-day political debates and movements. Authors will include Thomas Hobbes, Walter Benjamin, Angela Y. Davis, Robert M. Cover, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and more. 

You can view the syllabus for this course here.

Classics of Social and Political Thought III (Taught Spring 2023)

The final quarter of Classics of Social and Political Thought turns to texts by nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers who developed critiques of existing social and political conditions: Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Max Weber, W.E.B. Du Bois, Simone de Beauvoir, and Hannah Arendt. These thinkers will invite us to explore a variety of ideas about the ways in which domination appears and operates within liberal democracies and capitalist societies, as well as the requirements for overcoming it. We will also examine the meaning of values such as equality, freedom, self-reliance, thrift, morality, and truth, and we will consider how these values shape human lives. Finally, throughout the quarter we will use the assigned texts as resources for learning about the practice of social criticism. We will consider how it can serve society, as well as how we might use the concepts and models of inquiry that we find in our texts to analyze present social and political conditions. What kinds of lives do these conditions allow us to lead? 

I was among a team of instructors teaching different sections of this course as an instructor of record. This description was drawn largely from one provided by the course lead. You can view the syllabus for this course here.

Teaching Assistant Experience

In addition to the two courses above, for which I served as the instructor of record, I have also had the opportunity to assist in a number of courses:

  • Introduction to Law, Letters, and Society — with David Lebow             Fall 2024

  • Classics of Social and Political Thought III — with Sarah Johnson        Spring 2022

  • Classics of Social and Political Thought II — with Sankar Muthu          Winter 2022

  • Human Rights Research and Writing — with Alice Kim Fall 2021 and Winter 2022

  • Classics of Social and Political Thought I — with Daragh Grant       Fall 2021

  • Race, Social Movements, and American Politics — with Cathy J. Cohen Fall 2021