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Abstract

Abolitionist educators may grapple with the cognitive dissonance produced by ethical conflicts arising in their work within academic institutions with well-established ties to the Prison-Industrial Complex (PIC). This is especially likely for those within criminal justice departments whose mission and ideological underpinnings often clash with abolitionist principles. Teaching in classrooms outfitted with furniture produced through the labor of imprisoned people, instructing students who plan to work within the criminal legal system, and contributing to a curriculum that may support State violence and injustices are just a few examples of the tensions that abolitionists in Academia encounter. Additionally, we recognize that our own careers may be contingent upon maintaining a carceral State, even as we discuss in our classrooms and in our scholarship the need to dismantle that very system. Drawing on our own experiences, this essay critically reflects and analyzes how abolitionist educators navigate the tension between their values and their roles within an institution that directly and indirectly supports carcerality and State violence. We also discuss strategies to reconcile this dissonance, such as using critical pedagogies that challenge conventional narratives around policing and punishment while centering abolitionist alternatives and transformative justice. We conclude by proposing that the presence of abolitionist educators within the Academy can provide opportunities to shift universities from sites that maintain the PIC to sites of resistance by fostering critical discourse and empowering students with the analytical tools to imagine a future that rejects carcerality.

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