History 245 - U.S. Carceral Culture

Fall
2016
01
4.00
Jen Manion
TTH 01:00PM-02:20PM
Amherst College
HIST-245-01-1617F
BEBU 107
jmanion@amherst.edu

[US] An overview of punishment from the Enlightenment to modern times. Topics include theories of criminality; birth of the penitentiary; growth of carceral culture; role of reform movements; relationship between slavery, abolition, and punishment; rise of criminology, eugenics, and sexology; persistence of poverty among carceral subjects; and the emergence of the contemporary prison industrial complex. Primary sources for consideration include newspaper articles, reform and abolition organizational records, official prison reports, and legal and sociological papers. Secondary readings will be primarily historical with some critical theories of difference and power including critical race theory, feminist theories of intersectionality, queer theory, and contemporary critical prison studies. Two class meetings per week. Limited to 30 students.  Fall semester. Professor Manion.

Permission is required for interchange registration during all registration periods.