Professor Rashad Shabazz Department of Geography

Professor Rashad Shabazz
Department of Geography
Prisons, Cities, and Black Masculinity (Geog 096 Special Topics Course)
This course explores the linkages between race, gender, spatiality, and prisons. We will
explore how prison space (or carceral space) and prison practices have shaped the
everyday lives of Black people in American cities. Drawing on a host of methods
(geography, sociology, literature, and philosophy) and theories (poststructuralism, critical
race studies, gender studies, and critical prison studies) we will extricate the carceral or
prison forms that work to fix and form Black life. Part of our task will be to understand
how the prisonizing of Black living space has shaped the lives of residents, particularly
Black men. We will also unpack how the nations recent incarceration binge (currently
2.3 million people) has given rise to a new economic source while also exploring the how
the rise of HIV/AIDS within Black American communities is linked to the prisonizing of
Black living space and rising incarceration rates. Topics include: political economy, race
and racism, public health, gender and patriarchy, housing and segregation, urban renewal,
critical analyses of space, and the prison industrial complex.
Required Texts
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Golden Gulag
George Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness
Sabo, Kuppers & London, Prison Masculinities
Course Reader
Recommended Texts
Jeffrey T Nealon and Susan Searls Giroux, The Theory Toolbox
Assignments
Students are expected to perform four core assignments: a presentation, blog postings, a
mid-term, and final paper. Although this is a lecture-style course, a significant part of
your grade will be determined by your participation.
Blog Postings: All students are required to give weekly reflections on the TV series The
Wire. Blog postings are intended as way link the theory and history of the readings with
tangible events. After viewing the wire, students will explore how the episodes engage,
critique and or reflect the analyses of authors we’ve read. There are thirteen episodes, so
students are expected to have thirteen blog postings. All episodes of the series are on
reserve at the Bailey/Howe Library (I will provide a worksheet that explains on how I
want students to use the series in the class).
Writing: Written work consists of three elements: (I will give more detailed information
on what I expect for these in class). The second form of writing will be a mid-term
paper. This paper will evaluate your engagement with the concepts and ideas from the
first half of class. Lastly, the final paper will be the culmination of research, class
discussions, and reading done over the semester. The instructor will provide the
parameters for the mid-term and final paper in a detailed explanation. Note: All papers
must be examined by the writing center before they are handed in. Papers will not be
accepted if students do not have documentation demonstrating they have gone to the
Spring 2009
Professor Rashad Shabazz
Department of Geography
writing center. You cannot pass the course without completing each of these
assignments.
Attendance, Participation, and Readings
Attendance is vital. More than two unexcused absence will jeopardize class standing.
Students are expected to show up to class prepared. This means students should have
completed the reading before class and show up ready to pose questions about the topics
and or readings.
Grading
Attendance 15%
Blog Postings 25%
Mid-Term Paper 25%
Final Paper 35%
Introduction
1/12 Introduction
1/14 Murray Foreman, “Space Matters: Hip Hop and the Spatial Perspective”
(Nealon & Searls, Theory Toolbox, “Subjectivity” & “Ideology”)
Race and Racism (part I)
1/19 Omi & Winant, “ Racial Formation”
1/21 Cornell West, “A Genealogy of Modern Racism”
Race: The Floating Signifier (Documentary)
(Nealon & Searls, Theory Toolbox, “Race”)
The Wire, Episode 1
Race and Racism (part II)
1/26 George Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, Ch 1&2
1/28 George Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, Ch 3
The Wire, Episode 2
Gender (part I): Performance
2/2
Judith Butler, “Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions”
2/4
Judith Halberstram, “An Introduction to Female Masculinity”
(Nealon & Searls, Theory Toolbox, “Gender”)
The Wire, Episode 3
Gender (part II): Black Masculinity
2/9
bell hooks, “Plantation Patriarchy”
2/11 Vershawn Young, “Nigga-Gender”
Byron Hurt, Hip Hop, Beyond Beats and Rhymes (documentary)
The Wire, Episode 4
The Construction of the Postindustrial Ghetto
2/16 David Wilson, “The Rise of the Glocal Ghetto”
2/18 Robin D.G. Kelley, “Looking to Get Paid
The Wire, Episode 5
Spring 2009
Professor Rashad Shabazz
Department of Geography
Theories of Carceral Spatiality (part I)
2/23 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, pg. 170-184
3/2
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, pg. 195-228
(Nealon & Searls, Theory Toolbox, “Why Theory” and “Poststructuralism”)
The Wire, Episode 6
Mid-term Paper Due 3/2
Spring Break
Theories of Carceral Spatiality: Black Space (part II)
3/9
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, pg. 293-308;
3/11 Live From the Panopticon: “Architecture and Power Revisited”
The Wire, Episode 7
Racism and Space
3/16 Jennifer J. Nelson, “Placing Africville: The Making of the Slum” & Raizing
Africiville: Fusing Spatial Management and Racist Discourse”
3/18 David Theo Goldberg, “Polluting the Body Politic: Race and Urban Location”
The Wire, Episode 8
Gender, Race, and Space
3/23 Farah Jasmine Griffin, ”South and the City: the Initial Confrontation with the
Urban Landscape”
3/25 Marice Wallace, “A Man’s Place: Architecture, Identity, and Black Masculine
Being”
The Wire, Episode 9
Prison Industrial Complex (part I)
3/30 Angela Y. Davis “The Prison Industrial Complex”
4/1
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Golden Gulag, Ch 1
(Nealon & Searls, Theory Toolbox, “Class”)
The Wire, Episode 10
Prison Industrial Complex (part II)
4/6
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Golden Gulag, Ch 2 & 3
4/8
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Golden Gulag, Ch 4
The Wire, Episode 11
Prison Masculinity
4/13 Sabo, Kuppers, & London, Prison Masculinities (selections)
4/15 Sabo, Kuppers, & London, Prison Masculinities (selections)
The Wire, Episode 12
Spring 2009
Professor Rashad Shabazz
Department of Geography
Prisonizing Black Space, Prisonizing the Black Subject
4/20 Loic Wacaqunat, “Deadly Symbiosis: When Ghetto and Prison Meet and Mesh”
4/22 Keith M. Harris “”Untitled”: D’ Angelo and the Visualizing of the Black Male
Body”
The Wire, Episode 13
HIV/AIDS, Prisons, and Black Space
4/27 Braithwaite, Hammett, “Mayberry, Inmates, HIV, and AIDS”
4/29 Sabo, Kuppers, & London, Prison Masculinities (selections)
Out of Control: AIDS in Black America (documentary)
Final paper due 5/8
Spring 2009