Entanglements in the U.S. Prison and Detention Complex. Resources of Survival and Abolitionist Horizons in Practices of (Kin) Relating 

My PhD project takes into view the carceral spaces of “War on Terror” detention, of the prison industrial complex, and of the U.S. border regime. While these spaces of confinement are to be described in their very own (cultural, historical) specificity, they come into view as highly intertwined spaces in their dependency of epistemic and infrastructural transfers that circulate between different historical and spatial sites. Insisting on these relations aims at countering claims of “exceptionality,” isolated incidents and singular perpetrators, and makes a case for a more systemic analysis of the violence encountered. At the same time, the project aims at expanding this attention to relationalities by taking into view carceral violence of separation and isolation which seeks to interrupt relations and entanglements on yet another level. The project will read texts and testimonies emerging from these carceral spaces for an analysis of precisely this separating violence on the one hand, while on the other hand considering them as “kites” transcending isolating borders and (re)establishing relations. Insisting on the irreducible entanglement of their subjects, the project will focus on narrations and modalities of (kin) relating as resources of survival in their (prison) abolitionist potentiality and as inventive practices of living/together.

• Gender/Queer Studies
• Postcolonial/Decolonial Studies
• Resistance Studies
• Prison/Detention Literature
• Alt-Right Movements