"We need to understand that we are dealing with humans": Experiential Learning, Constructions of Otherness, and Criminology's Complicity


Mitra Mokhtari, University of Toronto

Carceral logics have long been implicated for their role in (re)productions of otherness, that in settler colonial contexts such as Canada are often embedded within logics of colonialism, anti-black racism, and white supremacy. These logics are intimately imbricated within the disciplines of criminology and sociology. As such, the historical conditions in which fields such as sociology and criminology developed, must, as Lawrence (1982) argued be seen “within the context of slavery, colonialism, indenture, racism, and black peoples’ resistance to and struggles against those forms of domination” (130). Their intellectual genealogy “is part of that intellectual justification for state-enabled violence and racialized social control in the western hemisphere generally” (Leon and Cervantes 2022: 16). The logics and discourses produced by these fields have both constructed and legitimized pathologization, criminalization, and violences (Cunneen, Rowe, Tauri, 2017; Cunneen and Tauri 2019; Walcott 2020). For instance, Chartrand (2017) argues that “carceral logics produce forms of otherness that emerged from modernity with the same logic as colonialism” (678). Given the persistence of these logics and the violences they perpetuate, what might it mean to confront these constructions in an undergraduate criminology classroom. Based on interviews with 43 staff and faculty (n=43) of criminology departments across Canada, I consider how pedagogical tools of experiential learning, in particular the field placement, is characterized and understood by those delivering the opportunities. Experiential learning opportunities have been a mainstay in many social science classrooms for decades. Given the increasingly neoliberal shape of the university where departments must demonstrate their relevance in a manner that is often tied to metrics of success that emphasize a focus on employability skills, these forms of learning have been increasingly popular. For students in criminology (or sociology) these opportunities often involve interactions and experiences with the criminal justice system in its most expansive form. Many programs offer opportunities such as field placements/internships, guest speakers, field trips, research projects and service-learning. Participants often draw on three narratives to explain the importance of experiential learning: 1) as transformative; 2) as an obligation; and 3) its practicality. I situate these framings within a historical and contemporary examination of the field of criminology, that underscores the discipline’s (ongoing) role in the productions of othering discourses. Moreover, given the pervasiveness of how experiential learning in criminology is often tied to career pathways for criminal justice practitioners, I problematize the student-centred discourses that often leave ongoing carceral violence uncontested. Lastly, I explore these contexts within the current neoliberal university expanding understandings of how the neoliberal carceral university operates within the nexus of state apparatuses that exert control, violence, and surveillance. I orient this research toward an examination of those employed within the university in an effort to account for an integral yet understudied aspect of penal systems. As Van Cleve (2023) argues “it is not sufficient to simply gaze down at those affected by abuse and marginalization; rather, it is imperative that we look up at the power structure to study “those who create the conditions of marginality” (2 emphasis in original). In this sense, it remains essential and urgent to look up – or across – at those who comprise the fields of social science within the university. 

This paper will be presented at the following session: