There are currently over 3 million people locked behind bars in United States prisons, jails, and detention centers. In this era of mass incarceration, prison abolitionists envision a world entirely without prisons. The politics of abolition are complex, and the vision for abolition is long-­‐term. Activists seeking to operationalize abolitionist politics must navigate pragmatic strategic questions of issue framing, leadership, campaign planning, and coalition building. This thesis addresses issues of abolitionist strategy by examining the work of the California Prison Moratorium Project, a small yet highly successful antiprison organization based in Fresno, at the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. Drawing from a short series of interviews with CPMP staff, advisory board members, and allies, along with news clippings, organizational publications, and scholarly research, I analyze the effectiveness of CPMP's campaigns. Ultimately, I argue that CPMP's broad-­‐based coalition building strategies are a powerful example of effective abolitionist organizing.

This thesis explores the importance of incorporating students' surrounding place, population, and politics into a relevant and valuable curriculum. I frame this analysis with an overview of the benefits and detriments of the recent Educational reform initiative known as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Public responses to the standardization of curriculum brought about by the CCSS are presented and reviewed. In line with the significant amount of criticism that has been voiced, I explore the elements missing from the CCSS and offer an appropriately adapted version of one module of fifth grade English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum. Throughout this curriculum I adapt existing lessons to address the place, population, and politics of students in Honolulu, Hawaii and in Poughkeepsie, New York. I use these adapted curricula as well as guiding questions for adaptations in other locations to encourage a meaningful and necessary differentiation of the CCSS.

Within the contemporary landscape of public education reform, educational actors are re- directing their hopes and visions for equitable and collaborative change outside of public space and into private territories, such as charter schools. The effort to establish the Four Pillars Charter School in the city of Poughkeepsie, NY is one such example of an education reform initiative that seeks to move further outside and away from traditional democratic and public educational institutions. Through an analytical framework that draws upon neoliberal abandonment, the regime of common sense, the politics of disposability, territory, I examine the overall trajectory of the FPCS efforts—including its origins, motivations, and vision and challenges—in order to argue for a return to and a reinvigoration of democratic and public institutions. Ultimately the FPCS effort represents a call to re-imagine equitable educational experiences for youth in existing PCSD schools, and to critically re-examine and begin to deconstruct the racism and classism that has for so long burdened and territorialized traditional democratic and public educational space within the PCSD.

<em>The Bronze Emperor </em>is a historical fiction novella tracing the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius from its creation in the Roman Empire to 2012. Each chapter moves the story forward and time, focusing on an event or a moment in history that either directly involved the statue or simply happened nearby with the statue as a silent witness.