Hi all,
My name is Kyra Kellogg, I am one of our undergraduate lab assistants here in the Abolition Lab for All Time Humanities Lab. I’ve been working with the Lab since last winter when undergraduates were first brought on the team. Thus, I feel as though my college experience has been intertwined with the lab and our mission.
Our mission, if you’re unaware, is to promote and platform academic discussions to “re-examine the theme of ‘abolition’ as both a historical legacy of the College and as an urgent concern for its present and future.” (taken from the official Abolition Lab website) Through my position, I tell people that I work in the digital humanities, helping classes create accessible online projects. I say that the way I platform abolition is through access to information, creating and sharing resources to decrease barriers to quality resources on the important topics we support. When I tell people this, they still ask if that is “abolitionist enough.”
Today, I sit in the Abolition Lab during a student walkout supporting Palestinian voices amidst the ongoing genocide being acted upon them, and ask myself what makes an Abolition Lab? More pressingly, what makes an abolitionist institution? Amidst the protest, I don’t walk out, I don’t close the lab. I offer students candy on their way walking out and say they are supported by us. (me) Not walking out is a decision that didn’t come easily. I stay because I think the Abolition Lab has the power to support this mobilization. We can be a platform for change.
I press the Abolition Lab to act as a voice for modern-day abolition on this campus. We, the Abolition Lab, should be a space and resource for students who are fighting for human rights. We have the physical space and intellectual resources to support these movements. We have students connected to organizations for change. We are an arm of the college, but financially supported through the Mellon Foundation. We should use this independence to platform groups encouraging abolition-based change. We need to live up to our name. People should not have to ask what makes us an “Abolition Lab.”
We praise the founders of this college for their abolitionist work, whether it be founded in fact or myth. However, much more importantly than that, we should be supporting our students. We, the lab, should be working with them, amplifying their voices, or even just giving them candy amidst their fight.
I urge members and supporters of the Lab to question what it means to be part of an “Abolition Lab.” What does it mean for you as an individual? What does it mean for Knox as an institution? After thinking about it, note the hypocrisies. Let’s talk about them. Then, I think we have the power to mobilize the Lab in response to them.
And further, I urge students to please stop in the lab. Sit down with whoever is at the desk, 10-4, we will help you mobilize your ideas. Let’s talk about your vision and your goals, we will show you how to make a website, infographic, or video content. We have resources for you, please use them.
Let’s make good on our mission and bring the conversation on abolition into today. We’ve been having them academically, but there is so much life outside that. I truly believe in the power of the Abolition for All Time Humanities Lab and our resources to support activism on this campus. You should too.
