Defined by Absence: Situating the Public Library Within the American Neoliberal Carceral State
Poster | Monday, May 17, 2021 | 2:45pm – 4:00pm EST
This research paper presents a historical and theoretical overview of the development of the current US prison state and its relationship to job creep in librarianship through a critical perspective of neoliberal capitalism. By examining the library as a changing public space and the prison system as one developed from a white supremacist state’s desire to define a public through absence, we situate the library, library workers, and library patrons within the carceral society of the United States. We hope to present our paper to shed light on the library’s positionality with regards to the Prison Industrial Complex.
Presenters: Estelle Yim & Amy Olson
Estelle Yim (they/them) & Amy Olson (she/her) are Smith College undergraduate seniors with experience working in public libraries. They have been conducting an independent research project on the American Public Library system from a critical abolitionist perspective. They study how the growth of the neoliberal carceral state has shaped the library as last public space.
Poster
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