From Margins to Center: Black Feminism and Radical Imagination in the Classroom

Authors

Jane Mahon, University of CincinnatiFollow
Amanda Pierson, University of ArizonaFollow
Jovanna Walker, The George Washington UniversityFollow

Abstract

We center Black feminism and the radical imagination as necessary conditions of abolitionist pedagogy, and share our experiences of how the prominence of these epistemological frameworks fostered the co-construction of knowledge in a police and prison abolition course at one of the richest and whitest private educational institutions in the United States. Drawing on our experiences as abolitionists, activists, and scholars, we remain resolved that abolitionist epistemologies and pedagogies can and should be incorporated into traditional classroom settings to the benefit of all classroom members. Traditional postsecondary curriculums and the preeminence of official knowledge require the segregation and diminution of subjective and subjugated knowledge from which abolitionist ideals and practices are derived. In defiance of this tension, we propose the proliferation of a pedagogy consistent Black feminism and the radical imagination honors the genealogical roots of abolition by challenging classroom members to imagine a world that does not yet exist, to see themselves as members of a classroom community of care relatively free from surveillance and stigma, and to understand how power shapes credibility and legitimacy.

Recommended Citation

Mahon, Jane; Pierson, Amanda; and Walker, Jovanna (2025) "From Margins to Center: Black Feminism and Radical Imagination in the Classroom," Feminist Pedagogy: Vol. 6: Iss. 4, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/feministpedagogy/vol6/iss4/1