Join us for a lecture and conversation with George Ciccariello-Maher discussing his new book, A World Without Police: How Strong Communities Make Cops Obsolete. In this abolitionist manifesto, Ciccariello-Maher examines how a society built around policing, and that presumes its necessity, sees the police as a one-size-fits-all solution for every social problem: poverty, mental health, a lack of opportunity, or inadequate after-school or sports programs. Going beyond a diagnosis of the problem, Ciccariello-Maher turns to the long history of abolition and the uprising against the police in the summer of 2020 that cast police abolition into the mainstream imagination to explore what it might actually look like. With insights from communities in North American cities, as well as some in Latin America that provide models for protecting and caring for one another without the intervention from the police, this lecture outlines some of the tools communities use to build a world without police and beyond the prison industrial complex.

Non-Vassar attendees will be required to show proof of vaccination or evidence of a negative PCR COVID-19 test taken within three days of the event or negative rapid antigen test the day of the event.