Kristine Riley is a PhD candidate in the sociology program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her studies focus on critical criminology, feminist theory, social justice, public policy, and popular culture. Her dissertation, currently titled “Breaking Glass, Making Prison: How carceral feminism shapes the prison nation,” examines the gendered political economy of the criminal legal system in the contemporary era of reform.
She holds B.A.s in psychology and community studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a Master’s of Science in conflict resolution from the University of Oregon Law School, and a Master’s of Philosophy in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center. Since joining the GC, she’s held fellowships with Humanities New York and the GC’s Center for the Humanities. Before becoming a Fellow with TLC, Kristi spent a decade working in criminal legal services, policy, research, and system reform.
I first encountered Kristi's work on Visible Pedagogy, a blog site run by the Teaching and Learning Center at the CUNY Graduate Center. Visible Pedagogy is a blog dedicated to advancing and expanding conversations about teaching and learning at CUNY. The staff of the Teaching & Learning Center, Contributing Writers, and CUNY faculty, staff, and students collaboratively author the blog. Kristi's series analyzes the Star Wars: Andor series from the lens of abolition and pedagogy: a study of educational practices as they relate to institutional racism, antislavery movements, and the prison industrial complex.
Abolitionist pedagogy asks us to imagine and engage in pedagogical praxes “beyond carceral logics of the current penal and criminal justice systems” (Feliciano, Talisa). Abolitionist pedagogy, broadly put, asks us to examine the systemic practices in education that reflect and directly lead to incarceration, from punitive, no-tolerance practices to racist individuals and school cultures that actively put Black, Brown, immigrant, and queer children in prison. Kristine effectively argues that Andor is uniquely situated to criticize our current systems, but also cautions us to reflect on and improve our practices so that we can develop pedagogical strategies that rely on "trusted relationships and not threats of punishment."
For more resources on abolitionist pedagogy, check out the following:
Critical Resistance: https://criticalresistance.org/
– Abolitionist Educators Workgroups: https://criticalresistance.org/abolitionist-educators-workgroup/
-Ruth Wilson Gilmore: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/ruth-wilson-gilmore
-Dylan Rodriguez: https://linktr.ee/dylanrodriguez73
scallywag
-Mariame Kaba: https://mariamekaba.com/
Angela Davis
