OPEEP is grounded in prison abolition, Black feminism, and LGBTQ+ social justice principles and pedagogies. Please see the list below for suggested books, articles, essays, interviews, and resources relating to our collective visions and goals!
Readings & Resources
The Combahee River Collective Statement by The Combahee River Collective
The Plot of Her Undoing by Saidiya Hartman
STAR---Survival, Revolt, & Queer Antagonistic Struggle by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera
Claiming An Education by Adrienne Rich
How Prison Education Overlooks Women by Katherine Mangan
Are Prisons Obsolete?
by Angela Davis (2003)
Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence and America’s Prison Nation
by Beth E. Richie (2012)
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)
Decarcerating Disability
by Liat Ben-Moshe (2020)
Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada*
by Liat Ben-Moshe, Allison C. Carey, & Chris Chapman (2014)
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America*
by Beth Macy (2018)
God in Captivity: The Rise of Faith-Based Prison Ministries in the Age of Mass Incarceration*
by Tanya Erzen (2017)
Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women behind Bars
by Carolyn Sufrin (2017)
Living a Feminist Life
by Sara Ahmed (2017)
Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States*
by Joey L. Mogul, Andrea J. Ritchie, & Kay Whitlock (2011)
Sister Outsider
by Audre Lorde (1984)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander (2010)
The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison*
by PEN America & Caits Meissner (2022)
Free writing & discussion guide available here
We Do This 'Til We Free Us
by Mariame Kaba (2021)
* = Links leading to excerpts only and/or full text purchasing options. Requests for hard copies/other full text versions may also be submitted through OSU libraries.
Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is Intersectionality?
“Becoming Abolitionists”: Derecka Purnell on Why Police Reform Is Not Enough to Protect Black Lives
MacArthur Fellow Saidiya Hartman, Literary Scholar and Cultural Historian
Barnard Center for Research on Women: What is Transformative Justice?
13th Documentary *Content Warning: this documentary contains sensitive subject matter and images*