Purdue University Graduate School
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"DON'T LET THEM BURY US": LESBIAN ACTIVISM IN THE GENEALOGY OF THE PRISON ABOLITION MOVEMENT

thesis
posted on 2025-01-10, 14:09 authored by Cait N. ParkerCait N. Parker

This dissertation analyzes how lesbian activism contributed to the genealogy of the prison abolition movement from the late 1980s through the early 2000s through collective practices, including grassroots organizing, exchanging writing and art, and acts of intimacy. Although the language of prison abolition did not emerge widely until the 1990s, their work —though not explicitly abolitionist at the time — proved instrumental to the contemporary prison abolitionist movement. Through archival research and oral histories with Judy Greenspan, Linda Evans, Laura Whitehorn, and Eve Rosahn, this research shows how these activists interceded in abolition's genealogy through their nuanced interrogations of gender, sexuality, and incarceration within the broader context of systemic racism and imperialist violence. Their critiques challenged mainstream feminist and gay and lesbian movements' failure to recognize their interdependencies within the carceral system. In 1986, as anti-imperialist lesbian activist Susan Rosenberg was led to a prison isolation unit, Rosenberg called out “Don’t let them bury us!”; excavating these genealogical threads enriches our understanding of abolitionist thought and illuminates crucial intersections between lesbian activism, anti-imperialism, and the struggle for a world without prisons.

History

Degree Type

  • Doctor of Philosophy

Department

  • American Studies

Campus location

  • West Lafayette

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Sharra Vostral

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee co-chair

Shannon McMullen

Additional Committee Member 2

Christina Hanhardt

Additional Committee Member 3

Tracey Jean Boisseau