Volume 45, Issue 1 Asian American Abolition Feminisms

Our special issues bring together Asian American political critique and abolition feminisms to consider how we can move beyond ambiguous calls to “stop hate” that are disconnected from analysis of power and violence and that often favor performative measures and individual recognition. Instead, we move towards an expansive politics of difference in order to critique the legitimization of state violence and the deployment of death through systems of racial and gendered difference.

The two interconnected special issues offer different theoretical perspectives and analyses of state violence and empire as they intersect with racial, gender, and economic violence lived in the daily context of people’s lives. The first issue is inspired by the process and work of collective theorizing that comes from sustained dialogue and shared knowledge production.  The second issue includes the voices of activists, organizers, artists, and movement-based scholars who share lessons learned from abolitionist organizing in recent moments. This issue also offers reflections on movement documentation, curational, and archival practices, often in reflexive tension with institutional recuperation.