Category: publishing

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New article out in Theory and Event, responding to Anker’s work.

Last year, I was humbled to be invited to read, respond to, and think with one of my favorite political theorists, Elisabeth Anker. I got to join the amazing Lida Maxwell as a respondent to Elisabeth’s paper, “White and Deadly”: Sugar, Slavery, and The Sweet Taste of Freedom” at the 2018 Maxwell Lecture at the University of Utah (organized by the also incredible Steven Johnson).

I learned so much from these amazing thinkers, and was given some space to think all over the place about the collective (and specific) attachments to and enjoyments of white supremacy that shape this place we inhabit. And now you can read Elisabeth’s amazing paper in the new issue of Theory and Event! And Lida’s brilliant response! and my rambling thoughts as well, if you would like. Steven’s wonderful introduction to the symposium also makes me sound smarter than I am!

Dilts2020-TE-UglinessOfFreedomsPractices-AnkerResponseDownload
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New essay out: “Crisis, Critique, and Abolition”

Excited that this is out in print, an essay on the relationship between critique (as a practice of empirically engaged analysis) and abolitionist politics, as part of A Time For Critique (Columbia Press, 2019). The essay came out of a really amazing study group I was in a few years ago, and it captures a lot of how I think about our present moment in relation to the long history of “crisis” that is often forgotten when every day feels like a new disaster is unfolding. I’m really flattered to be alongside a lot of incredible thinkers here, and humbled to have my thoughts included.

Dilts-2019-Crisis Critique and Abolition-A Time for CritiqueDownload
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Issue one of @AbolitionJ available! Launch event at DVC this week…

It’s been many years in the making, but Issue One of Abolition Journal is finally out in print and available from Common Notions (and AK Press Distro)!

The full journal will be published online here shortly, entirely Open-Access and in print quality PDF format. We’re just getting the technical things sorted out.

Additionally, I’ll be up at Diablo Valley College on Feb 28 alongside Albert Ponce, Brooke Lober, and others to talk about abolitionist politics generally, and how the journal project fits into that work. And we’ll have lots of copies of Issue One on hand as well. So, if you’re in the Bay area, come and join us!

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Privilege, The Myth of Merit, and Abolition-Democracy

NB: This is a lightly edited version of a talk that I gave as part of the Thinking Privilege Symposium at the Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities, Haverford College, April 8, 2016. It is based on an earlier talk I gave at the 2015 APSA annual meeting as part of a roundtable to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the publication of Iris Marion Young’s Justice and the Politics of Difference. As it was written for spoken delivery, it lacks a complete scholarly apparatus; apologies.

Continue reading “Privilege, The Myth of Merit, and Abolition-Democracy”

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Justice as Failure

NB: This essay, in a slightly different form, was published in the journal of Law, Culture and the Humanities and cross-posted as a “guest post” at XCPhilosophy. I wrote this essay on and off in the years since the acquittal of George Zimmerman and sent it to the journal shortly before a Baltimore jury failed to arrive at a decision in the prosecution of Officer William Porter’s involvement in the death of Freddie Grey, and before prosecutors in Ohio decided not to charge Officers Timothy Loehmann or Frank Garmback for the murder of 12-year old Tamir Rice.

That, in the short time between when this short essay was finished and it could appear in print, two more instances of the criminal punishment system’s failure to hold police officers accountable for the violent deaths of two more black people in this country is itself too much to bear. [1]

Continue reading “Justice as Failure”

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Introduction to Active Intolerance now available for download

ActiveIntolerance-CoverSince I know none of you  can  wait for it, you’ll be happy to know that  the Introductory  chapter of  Active  Intolerance: Michel Foucault, The Prisons Information Group, and the  Future of Abolition  is now  available for download as a PDF direct from, Palgrave Macmillan. The chapter, co-authored by myself and Perry Zurn, sets the stage for the entire collection, introduces readers to the the GIP, and works to re-center our readings of this remarkable group away from merely a footnote to “Foucault Studies.”

Active Intolerance  will be widely available on November 18 of this month, and is already  available for preorder! And for a limited time, you can order direct from  Palgrave and get 30% off the cover price with promo  code PMTHIRTY15.

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Active Intolerance will be out Nov. 18; take 30% off via Palgrave

Active Intolerance-DiscountFlyerActive Intolerance: Michel Foucault, The Prisons Information Group, and the  Future of Abolition,  (co-edited with Perry Zurn of Hampshire College) is set to drop in  print Nov. 18!  It is already  available on amazon for pre-order… or, you can take 30% by ordering directly from  Palgrave with  the code PMTHIRTY15.

Also, I’ll be  speaking at  the University of Richmond next week on  Punishment and Inclusion  and questions of critical prison theory/philosophy.  I’ll post details soon!

Lastly, if you’re going to be at SPEP next week in Atlanta, come and see  the panel with Ladelle McWhorter, Natalie Cisneros, Perry Zurn, and  Dianna Taylor (who are all contributors to the volume) speaking  about  their work in Active  Intolerance:  Screen Shot 2015-09-29 at 2.18.11 PM

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Instructors: Exam copies of P&I available from FUP

If you  are  interested in using Punishment and Inclusion in a course, Fordham University Press has set up a link to request a free  examination  copy direct  from the press.  This is obviously only for instructors who are likely to assign the text  in future courses. You can also  just  buy  yourself a copy at 50% off the list price direct from FUP as part of their spring sale using the code SPRING3K4D15, for a limited time.