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UCL Americas Public Seminar Series: Carceral Citizens: Labor and Confinement in Puerto Rico

04 December 2024, 4:30 pm–6:00 pm

Seminar series cover

Join Dr Caroline Parker (University College London) for the 6th seminar of the 2024/25 series.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Organiser

Sudershana Dave

Location

103
51 Gordon Square
London
WC1H 0PN
United Kingdom

How carceral expansions are changing labour and social life. In Carceral Citizens, anthropologist Caroline offers an ethnographic portrait of therapeutic communities in Puerto Rico, the oldest colony in the Americas. As nonprofits nested within the carceral state, therapeutic communities serve as reeducation and recovery centres for the mostly male drug offenders who serve out their sentences engaged in manual labour and prayer. The most surprising aspect of these centres, however, is that their “graduates” often remain long after the completion of their term, working as self-appointed peer counsellors in a mixture of volunteer and low-wage positions.

 The seminar seeks to explain this dynamic by showing how, in these therapeutic communities, criminalized men find new and meaningful ways of living in the shadow of the prison. Through their participation in the day-to-day functioning of the centres, they discover and cultivate alternative forms of belonging, livelihood, and citizenship, despite living within the restrictions of the carceral state. Situating her study against the backdrop of Puerto Rico’s colonial history, and with findings that extend across Latin America, Parker challenges common assumptions about confinement, labour, and rehabilitation. By delving into lives shaped by the convergence of imperialism, the carceral state, and self-help, she offers a fresh understanding of the transformations of labour and social life brought about by mass incarceration.

Chaired by Kate Saunders-Hastings

About the Speaker

Caroline Parker

Lecturer in Anthropology and Professional Practice Dept of Anthropology at University College London

Caroline Parker is a Lecturer of Anthropology of Professional Practice and the Director of the UCL’s Ethnographic Insights Lab. Before joining UCL, Caroline held the position of Presidential Fellow of Medical Anthropology at the University of Manchester. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociomedical Sciences and Anthropology from Columbia University. Caroline is the founder of Learning in Prison, a Community Interest Company dedicated to expanding access to higher education in prisons across the United Kingdom https://www.learning-in-prison.com/

More about Caroline Parker

Other events in this series