In their essay “Police Repression Is the Problem, Not the Solution,” CARL Director Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III, Dr. Jude Paul Dizon, Dr. Vanessa Miller, and Jessica Hatrick offer an incisive critique of colleges and universities mobilizing campus and municipal police in response to peaceful Encampment for Gaza protests.

This study explored the dynamic nature of 42 Black undergraduate and graduate students’ senses of safety as it relates to their college campuses due to the shifting vulnerabilities exposed in the current political and societal climate.

Charles H.F. Davis III, CSPHE faculty member and director of the Campus Abolition Research Lab, has been selected for induction into the 38th Martin Luther King, Jr. College of Ministers and Laity’s Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College. The College of Ministers and Laity honors individuals who have shown commitment to the adaptive faithful servant-scholar moral cosmopolitan leadership tradition and selfless service to humanity, in tribute to Dr. King.

In recent years, higher education leaders have been forced to confront the negative impact of police presence on Black and racially minoritized campus populations. We propose that higher education leaders and policymakers take seriously contemporary calls to defund and abolish campus police in order to craft safer and more empowering campus environments for minoritized populations on campus and in surrounding communities

In their essay “A Case for Abolishing Campus Police,” CARL Director Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III and Dr. Kamaria B. Porter offer a compelling argument for alternative understandings of campus safety and the need for postsecondary institutions to divest from the institution of policing.

On December 7th, during the meeting of the University of Michigan Board of Regents, the University’s eight-member governing board, Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III offered public comment regarding campus racism and political repression of student activism by Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students and their supporters.

The parallel movements for police-free schools and police-free college campuses encouraged educational researchers to further investigate education’s policing problem, but also the broader realities about public safety at the intersection of education and society. Altogether, new demands emerged for the abolition of school and campus police as well as the socioeconomic conditions that necessitate their presence.

Season 1 of the #PoliceFreeCampus Podcast is now available! This season engages organizers, practitioners, and scholars in discussing the challenges and possibilities for colleges and universities without the police. The podcast is hosted by CARL Director Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III.

CARL Director speaks with Higher Ed Dive about plan to arm campus police at George Washington University.

CARL Research Associate Brandy Jones named fellow at the Center for HBCU Research, Leadership, and Policy at Howard University.

CARL Director issues letter of support for graduate workers and the Graduate Employee Organization-led strike. Dr. Davis affirms the importance of unarmed response in addressing issues of campus safety.

In recognition of the 38th Annual National Day of Observance, and 98th birthday celebration, we recognize the radical abolitionist legacy of human and civil rights North Star Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Penn Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Graduate/Undergraduate Conference is accepting proposals for papers and presentations with abolition focus.

The Campus Abolition Research Team published an essay entitled “Why HBCUs Need Abolition (And the Rest of Y’all Too)” in Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

The Campus Abolition Research Team will be presenting work from their respective projects at the annual Association for the Study of Higher Education conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III will present work on campus abolition from his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Academy of Education’s Fall Retreat in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Sy Stokes, Executive Research Fellow, and lab director Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III publish new article on anti-hate speech activism in the Peabody Journal of Education.

CARL hosts Brenda Anderson Wadley, DeMarcus Jenkins, and Sy Stokes as 2022-2023 research fellows. Fellows will work on a variety of scholarly publications to include research articles, policy briefs, and resource guides as well as participate in CARL public engagement events.

CARL Research Associates Taylor Lewis and Yvonne Garcia awarded Anti-Racism Research Grants from the National Center for Institutional Diversity.

CARL Director Charles H.F. Davis III has been named a 2022 Anti-Racism Collaborative Research and Community Impact Fellow by the National Center of Institutional Diversity.