Lecture by Elsa Lora
Chaired by Marcus Folch

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country on earth – a reality that has violently reorganized family life for a staggering number of people. Separation is not, however, an inevitable byproduct or essential characteristic of incarceration. This lecture explores one historical case study in which an American prison assumed the responsibility of preserving, and allegedly rehabilitating, families. Lora presents the prison’s shifting relationship to the American family as a story of continuity rather than of change. Whether guided by an agenda of separation or preservation, Lora argues that prisons have instrumentalized incarcerated people’s most intimate relationships to serve their own punitive ends while also reinforcing broader, often racially exclusionary, ideals of family life. This history of “intimate governance” reveals the prison’s place in a broader apparatus of family regulation and makes visible the enduring ideological entanglement between punishment and the family.

Fall Thursday Lecture Series events are open to Columbia-affiliated faculty, students, and invited guests. All others interested in attending, please email the SOF/Heyman at [email protected].

Please email [email protected] to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.