UCLA

This dissertation studies memory work on incarceration through the lens of critical archival studies and abolition feminism. In the U.S., around two million people are currently incarcerated, nearly half of the population has a family member who is or has been in prison, and the lifetime probability of incarceration for men is almost ten percent. Despite this widespread impact, the perspectives of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people struggle to be heard. However, more archives are turning their attention to collecting oral histories, artwork, writings, and other materials from those with lived experiences of imprisonment. This dissertation studies the significance of this memory work through ethnographic research at three archives: After Violence Project, Rikers Public Memory Project, and Brown University’s John Hay Library. Through in-depth interviews with archives staff and formerly incarcerated contributors, observation of events at the sites, and study of their collections, the significance of memory work is identified at four levels: personal, practical, political, and epistemological. On the personal level, formerly incarcerated archives contributors describe the healing power of reclaiming one’s story in the wake of symbolic annihilation. The practical significance of memory work on incarceration is in fostering an archival praxis that prefigures a society centered on care and accountability instead of punishment. Describing the political applications of this memory work, Rikers Public Memory Project provides a case study for how archives can advance narrative change. And study of the Mumia Abu-Jamal papers demonstrates how memory work on incarceration challenges dominant epistemologies. Seen through the lens of abolition feminism, these levels of significance represent interconnected areas of struggle in ending carceral capitalism. This is the abolitionist archival imaginary: the use of archives to imagine and enact a post-carceral future. At a moment when archival praxis is threatened by state repression, the rise of AI technologies, and the expansion of digital surveillance, this study concludes by asserting the urgency of abolitionist archival imaginaries for reorienting memory work toward liberation.