This discussion group aims to provide a collaborative space for scholars, practitioners and activists to explore and reckon with a broad range of abolitionist imaginaries and praxis.
The Discussion Group usually meets on Tuesdays with discussions taking the form of a presentation delivered by a guest speaker followed by an audience-led Q&A. For further information and receiving our term cards, please subscribe to our mailing list.
Next event | 5th May, 16:00-17:30 BST | Koshka Duff on The Criminal is Political: Popular Illegalities and Shameless Solidarities.
This talk will be delivered in collaboration with the Policing Discussion Group. See more information about the talk here.
The presentation will be delivered online, but you can still attend in person. We will be providing snacks and coffee! The address for in-person attendance is: Centre for Criminology Seminar Room, St Cross Building, OX1 3UL.
Please sign up here.
12th of May 16:00-17:30 BST| Nina Perkowski on Reimagining Security from Below: Participatory Method, Abolitionist Alternatives, and What Non-Elite Imagination Can and Cannot Do.
In person: Centre for Criminology Seminar Room, St Cross Building, OX1 3UL. (you can also attend online).
Please sign up here.
17th of June 10:30 - 11:45 | Melanie Brazzell on “Anti-Inflammatory Politics” and the Abolitionist Care Commons.
In person: Manor Road Building - Seminar Room E, OX1 3UQ (you can also attend online)
Please sign up here.
A List of Past Events:
6 February 2024 SM Rodriguez on Abolition and the Black Feminist Imagination.
5 March 2024 Adam Elliott-Cooper: We did not come alive in Britain: From Anti-colonialism to Abolition In collaboration w/ Race and Post-Colonial Geographies Series. School of Geography.
7 May 2024 Diana Volpe on Divest Borders - Reflections on Migrant Solidarity Activism on and off Campus.
21 May 2024 molly ackhurst and Ellie Whittingdale on Feminist Entanglements and the State of Stuckness: The Tensions, and Possibilities, of Abolition in Feminist Sexual Violence Work.
3 June 2024 Railda Alves and Miriam Duarte Peireira on Families Building Paths: A Talk with the Founders of the Brazilian Abolitionist Organisation AMPARAR (Associação de Amigos e Familiares de Presos/ Association of Prisoners’ Family Members and Friends). You can watch the recording here.
15 October 2024 Lisa Monchalin on Dismantling Colonial Punishment: Toward Indigenous Justice Solutions.
11 February 2025 Camila Pelsinger on Abolition Feminism and Theorizing Transformative Accountability.
11 March 2025 Hope Chilokoa-Mullen and 4FRONT on Decriminalising youth: Reframing "safety" for racialised young people.
20 May 2025 Shaïn Morisse on the co-authored book 'Brick by Brick by Brick, Wall by Wall: A History of Penal Abolitionism'.
17 June 2025 Lorena Burbano (Mujeres de Frente) and Silvana Tapia Tapia on Anti-carceral feminisms in Ecuador: toward a non-penal feminist justice.
3 November 2025 Basil Farraj on Carceral Violence and Prisoners' Resistance: The History of Palestinian Political Prisoners.
24 November 2025 Sarah Lamble on Practicing Everyday Abolition in the context of Britain’s Culture Wars
2 December 2025 S.M. Rodriguez on Haunting the Criminological Imagination: Abolition as Diasporicised Method. In collaboration with the Southernising Criminology Discussion Group.
