Deena Varner
deena-varner.bsky.social
Deena Varner
@deena-varner.bsky.social
carceral studies :: social control :: corporate punishment :: lived experience :: carceral geography working group | RGS :: Book: From the Courtroom the Boardroom (UP of Kansas, May 2024)
It's been radio silence since this memo, excepting a message from the Provost to follow the chain of command (read: don't contact the Provost's office). This is far beyond what we were told to expect in the wake of the previous memo—when we were informed that we had to follow the "law" re: gender.
TX Tech has a flow chat for guidance on what can be taught in the university system. Two things:
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
December 2, 2025 at 1:09 AM
I am completely bereft. This has been going on for months, with varying degrees of guidance, but this one takes it. I am terrified of what's happening, for myself, my students, my colleagues, the public I serve.
www.texastech.edu/downloads/25...
www.texastech.edu
December 2, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Reposted by Deena Varner
Our first post is an invitation! Join is to explore creative methods in carceral geography with these amazing people. Register here: events.humanitix.com/cgwg-worksho...
June 5, 2025 at 1:59 PM
It was lovely working with @virvere.bsky.social on this wonderful review of Carceral Worlds: Legacies, Textures, and Futures, which foregrounds "how people feel and experience [a multiplicity of] carceralities."
Book Review: Carceral worlds: Legacies, textures and futures
Stuit, H, Turner, J, & Weegels, J. (Eds.). (2024). Carceral worlds: Legacies, textures and futures. Bloomsbury. Reviewed by Virve Repo, Tampere University, Finland    Carceral Worlds is an edit…
carceralgeographies.co.uk
May 28, 2025 at 4:39 PM
This conversation among recent political prisoners captures so many subtleties and contradictions of social life in prison—and a plug for their new book, City Time
City Time: A Discussion with David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan
David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan’s new book City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island (NYU Press, 2025) offers an insightful look into the daily life of one of the most notorious carceral…
hardcrackers.com
March 22, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Reposted by Deena Varner
How we did it: Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did
Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did
Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...
www.propublica.org
February 20, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Ahed’s Knee seems to be about the nationalist/racist/bureaucratic/authoritarian state, but the film within the film (the critique within the critique)—the *sympathy* and *admiration* for Ahed Tamimi—is a brilliant take on the structural relationship between liberalism and state violence.
Ahed's Knee – Official U.S. Trailer
YouTube video by Kino Lorber
www.youtube.com
February 13, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Reposted by Deena Varner
For the last time: The illegal / legal immigrant distinction is a manufactured crisis designed to mask deeper anxieties about white supremacy and generate support for nativist policies.
December 28, 2024 at 8:26 PM
Employees of Texas universities are no longer permitted to travel to China for teaching, research, or any other professional purposes. Greg Abbott has unilaterally crippled ties between American and Chinese academics. gov.texas.gov/uploads/file...
gov.texas.gov
December 26, 2024 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Deena Varner
I love a “drop everything and read” moment in my google scholar alerts for “carceral state.” New @davidstein.bsky.social article in American Quarterly! muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
December 12, 2024 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Deena Varner
This Black Friday, you'll probably notice the effects of inflation on price tags. What might not be so obvious though is its effect on the criminal legal system.

Each year, inflation makes the system more punitive – and that's not a good deal.
www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/06...
How inflation makes your state’s criminal justice system harsher today than it was yesterday
The case for increasing the monetary level for felony theft.
www.prisonpolicy.org
November 29, 2024 at 2:56 PM
Jailbots are like every recent #AI #surveillance horror movie squared. I wonder if someone watched Megan and said, let's do that in prisons! one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5178...
🔊 Listen Now: A look at a pilot program in Georgia that uses 'jailbots' to track inmates
Morning Edition on NPR One | 3:13
one.npr.org
November 26, 2024 at 3:36 PM
I’m prepping a class about “literature of the fantastic” through the lens of political systems and social control. As the semester winds down, I was able to spend an entire Saturday doing little else but rereading Octavia Butler’s Kindred.
November 24, 2024 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Deena Varner
Since the 1990s, scholar-activists with lived experience in the criminal legal system have built a global movement. Tietjen Grant explores its history, impact, and future promise. www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/s...
System-affected academics are building a movement — and transforming the academy
Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.
www.ucpress.edu
November 22, 2024 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Deena Varner
ICE Might Be Reading Your Encrypted Text Messages

Paragon is an Israeli firm whose spyware product “Graphite” focuses on breaching encrypted messaging applications such as Telegram and Signal. ICE, the immigration agency, has already acquired the technology.

www.newyorker.com/news/news-de...
The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone
Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other vulnerable groups. Could it happen here?
www.newyorker.com
November 22, 2024 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Deena Varner
since more people are coming here, here's the abolition resource guide I put together for those who may be interested! micahherskind.com/abolition-re...
Prison Abolition Resource Guide
“Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the worlds you cannot live within.”Ruha Benjamin This guide contains resources on the abolition of policing,…
micahherskind.com
November 20, 2024 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by Deena Varner
I saw this ad last week and ordered the ebooks but also decided I wanted one of the books in paperback: The Black Antifascist Tradition. I figure we can learn a lot from Black people.

#books #fascism #antifascism
November 17, 2024 at 5:54 PM
Last class today re: narratives inspired by real crime events. While the skills and content of the course were important, students mostly talked about learning how to do literary criticism as a social practice, how to listen attentively and shape their thinking through argument.
November 22, 2024 at 3:39 AM
I don't think I can stay on +wi++er much longer
November 22, 2024 at 3:32 AM