Instructor: Hannah Walker
The purpose of this course is to explore the challenges posed for American democracy by
issues related to criminal justice in the modern era. Such issues include police brutality, felon
disenfranchisement, the treatment of prisoners while in prison, and especially – the
relationship between historical institutional racial exclusion and the current era of mass
incarceration. We will evaluate the challenges posed for a system predicated on democratic
inclusion and equality of voice through the primary lens of civil rights and political organizing
around those rights as they intersect with criminal justice. In so doing, students will become
familiar and conversant on some of the most pressing topics of the current political moment.
