College Seminar (101-7-1)
Topic
Investigating Representations in True Crime
Instructors
Abigail Rose Barefoot
847/467-0259
Abigail Barefoot is an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the Center for Legal Studies. Prof. Barefoot’s research explores questions of justice, safety, and accountability through the lens of prison abolition and critical carceral studies Abigail’s current book project Beyond Carceral Responses: Transformative Justice, Prison Abolition, and the Movement to End Sexual Violence examines transformative justice practices for sexual violence. Using an ethnographic approach, Abigail unpacks the tensions, contradictions, and possibilities of practicing transformative justice as experienced by survivors, facilitators, and people who cause harm. Her other teaching and research interests include LGBTQ Studies, American social movements, and mass incarceration.
Meeting Info
University Hall 318: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course broadly provides a cultural analysis of true crime and pop culture. In particular, we'll uncover why true crime stories seem to go viral (and why certain folks enjoy devouring these narratives). We will think intersectionally, analyzing how race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and citizenship shape concepts of "victimhood" and "criminality," as well as make certain true crime narratives more "popular" than others. Finally, we will develop a robust theoretical toolkit, combining an interdisciplinary range of perspectives from feminist anti-violence studies, critical criminology, literary criticism, and creative non-fiction journalism.
Learning Objectives
•Critically examine contemporary issues in gender-based violence, criminal actions, social deviancy/social control, and mechanisms of punishment and justice.
•Apply an intersectional approach to topics surrounding the larger ecosystem of true crime in contemporary pop culture.
•Engage with an interdisciplinary variety of theoretical frameworks (feminist anti-violence studies, critical criminology, literary criticism, creative non-fiction, sociolegal studies, medical sociology), empirical observations (qualitative and quantitative data), and research methods (social science and humanistic).
•Craft text-based and verbal analyses of assigned course media—and extend this analysis to individually-selected case studies and contexts.
Teaching Method
Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Method
Short writing assignments
Class Materials (Required)
• Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession by Rachel Monroe (Simon & Schuster, 2020)
• All other media (texts, podcasts, and videos) will be posted on our course Canvas page.
Class Attributes
WCAS College Seminar