HIST 2715

The class will provide a broad historical overview of incarceration as it has been practiced and experienced internationally. We will consider the development of various forms of incarceration as the dominant form of punishment in the modern world. Prison systems have their roots in Europe, but the systematic practice of incarceration was exported to all corners of the globe as a key imperial and colonial construct. In our exploration of carceral practices and institutions across a range of settings and time periods, we will examine the birth of the modern prison; various theories and philosophies that have informed penal practices; penal transportation; colonial models of imprisonment; various reform movements; intersections between race, class and incarceration; political imprisonment; prison cultures; prisons as business; different national approaches to incarceration; and alternatives to mass imprisonment.