Drs. Kaplan, Wong and Dorr just signed an advanced contract with University of Washington Press for our forthcoming anthology, Abolition Everywhere. Building from our national convening this past spring, this collaborative project convenes scholars and practitioners working to dismantle policing and the carceral state with those deploying abolitionist frameworks to stage critical interventions in other movements and areas–including militarism and war, land and climate justice, housing and property, im/migration and reproductive justice–to construct a new model and agenda for research and action. Together we examine the convergent formation of abolitionist theory and praxis across a range of social movements to productively complicate and/or expand how we understand the inner workings of carceral power across different sites and scales. Given the urgencies of our current political moment, our aim is to strengthen conversations and connections across these movements and traditions.

Mary Ellen Curtin’s book, She Changed the Nation: Barbara Jordan’s Life and Legacy in Black Politics, a biography of the first Black woman from the South to serve in Congress, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in September 2024.

Denia Brielle Smith, an AFAM minor, has won the Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholarship for Public Service. Created by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and other collaborators, this scholarship combines up to $50,000 in financial aid, travel opportunities, and mentorship to support the next generation of leaders.

Mali Collins, AFAM faculty member, won a 2023 ACLS Fellowship for her book manuscript Scrap Theory: Reproductive Injustice in the Contemporary Black Feminist Imagination (Forthcoming, Ohio State University Press)