ANSO 10
Urban Inequality, Policing, and Struggles for Racial Justice Winter 2025

This class explores the connections between policing and struggles for more just and equal cities. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from sociology, Black studies, geography, history, and criminology, we will explore how the origins and development of different policing practices are intertwined with the racialization of space as well as how movements for racial, economic, and spatial justice make these connections. We will examine the evolution of these dynamics in the US context, focusing on the origins of policing, gendered and racialized post-Emancipation policing practices in US cities, the Black freedom struggle in the 1960s, struggles for just cities in the 21st century, and the relationship between gentrification and policing. While focusing on US cities, we will also draw on connections with policing and urban inequality in other nations, such as Brazil and South Africa. Students will gain hands-on experience in conducting interdisciplinary and critical research on urban inequality and policing as we explore these topics through collaborative and creative projects that draw on a range of data sources and modes of research communication that span across disciplines. This seminar-style class is focused on group-led discussions of readings and films, which will all be provided on GLOW. The main course requirements are active engagement in course discussions and a creative group project that draws on multiple forms of data (e.g., archival, census records, media sources, and self-exploratory reflections) to explore a contemporary issue or debate related to urban inequality, urban redevelopment, and policing.