ABOUT

Organized by a formerly incarcerated law student, formerly incarcerated scholar, and the Journal of Race and Economic Justice at UC Law San Francisco. This initiative creates a shared space that bridges academia with on-the-ground experience. The goal is to bring together scholars, students, educators, organizers, practitioners, advocates, and people systemically targeted by the criminal legal system to exchange ideas, share strategies, and advance abolitionist thought and practice. Together, participants explore how abolition can be taught, practiced, and sustained across communities and institutions—centering voices and experiences that have long been excluded from traditional academic and conversations.

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Language of the Symposium

The conversation language for the symposium is: English

Accessibility Information

We aim to practice disability justice and access as collective responsibility, not afterthought.

Please contact us for specific accommodation needs at abolitionsf@gmail.com

Registration Details

Click on the "REGISTER" button above to register.

Non-speakers can pre-register. The event is free but spots are limited.

Location

San Francisco

Who Should Submit a Proposal

1

Legal & Academic

Scholars, students, and educators exploring abolition in law, social sciences, humanities, or community-based education
Legal practitioners resisting carceral systems from within or outside traditional institutions

2

Community & Grassroots

Organizers, mutual aid networks, and justice workers building alternatives to police, prisons, and punishment
Youth leaders, neighborhood groups, and survivor collectives practicing transformative justice

3

System-Impacted Voices

Formerly incarcerated people, survivors of state violence, and anyone with lived experience in carceral systems
Immigrants, refugees, and those resisting deportation and surveillance

4

Artists & Cultural Workers

Writers, visual artists, performers, and cultural workers using art to expose harm and envision freedom
Creators challenging binaries like victim/offender, citizen/alien, legal/illegal

5

Healers & Spiritual Leaders

Practitioners of transformative justice, community accountability, or trauma-informed care
Faith-based or ancestral justice workers reclaiming non-carceral pathways to healing

6

Global & Intersectional Thinkers

Abolitionists confronting state violence, militarism, or imperialism
People bridging abolition with movements for racial, gender, disability, environmental, and economic justice

Topics of Proposals We Welcome

We invite proposals from organizers, artists, students, scholars, community members, and anyone working toward abolition in any form. You do not need to have academic credentials to participate — your lived experience, creativity, and critical thinking are enough.

Topics can discuss:

Mass Incarceration and Its Impact

Work that centers people affected by jails, prisons, policing, or surveillance — including incarcerated individuals, loved ones, and communities organizing for freedom.

Victims and Survivors of Harm

Abolitionist approaches to healing, safety, and accountability that go beyond punishment especially those led by survivors of violence or state harm.

Challenging “Victim/Offender” Binaries

Projects that explore how people can be both harmed and cause harm, and that seek justice through transformative or restorative practices rather than punishment.

Abolishing Other Carceral Systems

Proposals that target other systems of control, such as ICE, foster care, psychiatric institutions, or punitive schools and the beliefs (like racism, white feminism, ableism, or colonialism) that uphold them.

Work That Doesn't Fit a Box

If your work imagines new ways of living, healing, or creating safety beyond policing and prisons, we want to hear from you — even if it doesn't fit the categories above.

We welcome work that explores abolition as practice, vision, theory, history, imagination, or daily life.

Below are a few formats you can propose, but anything is welcomed!