Alan Dettlaff
@alandettlaff.com
3.5K followers 830 following 490 posts
Co-founder of the upEND movement to abolish the family policing system | Writer and co-facilitator at Toward Liberation, an abolitionist learning group | www.alandettlaff.com | www.towardliberation.com
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alandettlaff.com
NEW FROM ABOLITIONIST PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL WORK!

SPECIAL ISSUE: Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine

All articles are open access and available to download now: apsw-ojs-uh.tdl.org/apsw/index
Purple journal cover with title of journal and special issue. Table of contents from special issue.
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
inquest.bsky.social
"Hospitals and health-care providers are duty-bound to care for all people who come through their doors, and care for them well. Our current policies policing free movement and drug use are not working." Dr. Divya Manoharan on how hospitals fail their patients who use drugs.
Patients Need Care, Not Policing - Divya Manoharan - Inquest
Providing hospital inpatients who use drugs with safe ways to do so is a critical part of what it means to “do no harm.”
inquest.org
alandettlaff.com
ICYMI: JOIN US on October 16th at 6:00 PM Eastern for a special roundtable with the authors of the recently published papers in Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work on "Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine." REGISTER HERE: www.bit.ly/APSWRoundtable
A woman photographed from the back holds a Palestinian flag. This is overlain with details about the event and the registration link shared in the text.
alandettlaff.com
This is a really beautiful article that uses an auto-archaeological narrative to tell the story of the student protests that took place at Portland State University in October 2023 and the institutional repression that followed. The full article is available to download now at www.apswjournal.com.
A woman photographed from the back holding a Palestinian flag overlaid with information along with the title of the journal article, "Hands Off Palestine, Hands Off Students!" Abstract:
It was Spring 2024, and members of the Portland State University (PSU) campus community had been protesting fiduciary ties with corporations responsible for building and supplying weaponry used by Isreal in the genocide of Palestinians. After a major attack on Gaza in October 2023 and as tensions around the world grew, college and university communities became central to strategies of resistance. Protests and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) efforts in support of Palestinian liberation included encampments on campuses across the country and around the globe. Responses to these efforts varied greatly institution by institution, and on our campus the decisions were enacted by a newly appointed President and Interim Provost. After attempts to negotiate with the student-led protest groups were abruptly abandoned by the PSU administration, the campus, city, and eventually, state police were called to campus and given control of the (public) blocks, as well as the campus building that had become the locus of the movement. I will present a series of artifacts—personal, public, and institutional—which represent turning points for me in my understandings of social work, Palestine, and abolition. I’ll offer an auto-archaeologic narrative telling of these moments as well as the connections between these isolated memories and the work we are doing—or must be doing or should be doing—with regards to abolition and liberation in our social work practice, scholarship and pedagogy.
alandettlaff.com
The news today has been a bit misleading. To help clarify:

1. One man killed two people in Manchester.
2. The Israeli government killed over 50 people in Gaza.
3. Killing people is bad. Israel should stop doing it.

I hope this helps.
alandettlaff.com
JOIN US on October 16th at 6:00 PM ET for a special roundtable with the authors of the recently published papers in the special issue of Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work on "Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine." REGISTER HERE: www.bit.ly/APSWRoundtable
A woman photographed from the back holding a Palestinian flag overlaid with information about the author roundtable featured in the text of this post.
alandettlaff.com
Yes, this is about youth in some form of what the US calls foster care. But it is written by people from multiple countries.
alandettlaff.com
Last week I posted about attending the book launch for "Queer and In Care" but what I didn't mention specifically is that this new book is entirely open access and free to download! This is a really beautiful book. Please take a look! books.ugp.rug.nl/ugp/catalog/...
Cover of "Queer and In Care" featuring a young person surrounded by rainbows and flowers.
alandettlaff.com
This is such an important article as it exposes the utter hypocrisy of social work education. These are the stories about social work that need to be told if we are going to confront the harm universities and schools of social work inflict on so many people. Available now at www.apswjournal.com
Cover image of the Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work journal featuring a black and white photo of a woman holding a Palestinian flag. The colors of the flag are visible against the black and white background. Abstract of the article which begins: Social work education has a deep investment in carcerality and zionism, demonstrated over the past year of discipline and punishment of students for solidarity protests. This article interrogates social work education through the concrete experiences of a student, Darrion Hun, who was deeply involved in Palestine solidarity organizing at the NYU Silver School of Social Work.
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
philmandelbaum.bsky.social
We’re crowdfunding for @eji.org, a charitable org dedicated to “ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.”

tiktok.com/@thisisawkword
The United States incarcerates its citizens more than any other country. Mass incarceration disproportionately impacts the poor and people of color and does not make us safer. EJI is working to end our misguided reliance on over-incarceration.

The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population but nearly 25% of its incarcerated population.

Our spending on jails and prisons reached $87 billion in 2015, an increase of 1000% from the $7.4 billion spent in 1975.

In 1972, there were only 200,000 people incarcerated in the United States. Today that number has grown to 2.2 million.
alandettlaff.com
At the book launch for Queer and in Care in Groningen, Netherlands. You can get your free download at the QR code.
Video of rainbow flag with book title Queer and in Care. Book cover featuring young person with rainbow and QR code to download your copy.
alandettlaff.com
Thank you for this reminder!
alandettlaff.com
NEW from our special issue “Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine”: Nadia Ben-Youssef and Cameron Rasmussen explore the concepts of abolitionist social relations and collective safety as part of the global movement for a free Palestine. Available now at www.apswjournal.com.
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
inquest.bsky.social
We're back from our summer break with an incisive analysis from La Defensa's Leah Perez on how a history of racist policing in Los Angeles has amplified the violence of ICE and the National Guard to create the authoritarian spectacle of a city "under federal occupation."
The Canary in the Coal Mine - Leah Perez - Inquest
A number of factors—including a willingness of law enforcement to collude with federal authorities—make Los Angeles a distressing bellwether of a country succumbing to authoritarianism.
inquest.org
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
upendmovement.org
Yesterday we joined the Healthy and Free Tennessee Youth Council for a Family Policing Abolition 101 workshop. The brilliance and courage of these young leaders reminds us how important it is to listen to and learn from youth who are system impacted. ❤️ 🔥
alandettlaff.com
NEW from our special issue, “Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine,” Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Abeer Otman ask “What are the psychosocial, affective, and actual experiences of Palestinian students studying within settler-colonial genocide?” Available now at www.apswjournal.com
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
vashetc.bsky.social
Happy fall semester/quarter to all of my academic friends! Survivors+Allies created this syllabi template in 2020 & we hope u will consider adding it to your syllabi (adjusting it to your university)! It includes information on confidential resources & more.
Survivors and Allies - Syllabus Template
Template for Instructors to Use in Their Syllabus
www.survivorsandallies.com
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
liminalweaving.bsky.social
So thrilled to be part of this special issue!
#fromtherivertothesea #alwayswasalwayswillbe
alandettlaff.com
Over the next few weeks, I’d like to highlight the articles from our new special issue, “Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine,” beginning with this beautiful Introduction from our Guest Editors. Download the open access article from our website: www.apswjournal.com
alandettlaff.com
Over the next few weeks, I’d like to highlight the articles from our new special issue, “Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine,” beginning with this beautiful Introduction from our Guest Editors. Download the open access article from our website: www.apswjournal.com
alandettlaff.com
Reminder to join the @swactivists.bsky.social next week for "An Evening of Solidarity and Support." These meetings are always such a generative space to be together with like-minded people, feel supported, and learn about opportunities to engage where you're able and interested. I hope you can join!
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
philmandelbaum.bsky.social
The Kids are OK…

“As thousands took to the streets to protest ICE in the offline world — Roblox players protested within the game, battling cops, breaking down barricades, waving Mexican flags, and facing off across a line of players dressed in police SWAT gear”

www.teenvogue.com/story/kids-a...
Roblox players protest within the game, battling cops, breaking down barricades, waving Mexican flags, and facing off across a line of players dressed in police SWAT gear
alandettlaff.com
The profession of social work is in a sad and complicit state, but these articles are reminders that there are always individuals who are willing to take a stand even in the midst of institutional repression. All of these articles are open access and available now at our website: www.apswjournal.com
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
vashetc.bsky.social
APSW Special Issue called “Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine” is now available! Our journal is always open access and available to all. I’m so grateful to be able to be co-editor of this journal, and that we can publish important work like this.

Silence is complicity.
A purple cover of APSW abolitionist perspectives in social work. Volume 3 number 2. 2025. Special issue title thinking and practicing abolition through Palestine. Guest editor Stéphanie Wahab, associate guest editor: Rupaleem Bhuyan APSW table of contents. 

Palestine Is the Compass for Social Work, Stéphanie Wahab and Rupaleem Bhuyan.

On Pressurising Words,
Lara Sheehi.

Against Carceral Expansion: Academic
Quicksand in Times of Genocide, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Abeer Otman.


The Children Are Always Ours:
Palestinian Freedom, Abolitionist Social Relations, and Collective Safety, 
Nadia Ben-Youssef and Cameron W. Rasmussen.

Entwined Complicities: Genocidal
Geographies of the Youth Carceral State and Arrivals to Educational Abolitionism, Brian Cabral.

Implicated Victims: Ongoing Legacies of Colonial Violence in the Australian Sexual Violence Sector by Kendra Russell.

Phenomenologies of Silence: On the Palestine Exception and the Complicity of Social Work Academe, Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer, Amilah Baksh, Siham Elkassem, and Bryn King.

ACAB Also Means the NYU Silver School of Social Work: Social Work
Student Solidarity With the Palestinian Resistance and the Zionist Carcerality of
Social Work Education, Darrion Hun and Paddy Farr.

Social Work, Genocide, and the Coloniality of Silence, 
Kris Clarke, Adrián Groglopo, and llo Söderström.


Lessons from Abolition on the Violence/Non-Violence Binary and the Palestinian Struggle for Liberation, Greer A. Hamilton and Carmel Salhi.


"Hands Off Palestine, Hands Off Students!": An Auto-Archaeological Reflection on the Carceral Response to Student Protests on University Campuses and Queer, Filipinx Abolitionist Social Work Praxis,
Antonia R. G. Alvarez
alandettlaff.com
NEW FROM ABOLITIONIST PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL WORK!

SPECIAL ISSUE: Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine

All articles are open access and available to download now: apsw-ojs-uh.tdl.org/apsw/index
Purple journal cover with title of journal and special issue. Table of contents from special issue.
Reposted by Alan Dettlaff
upendmovement.org
"Decades before the pandemic made isolation and alienation a mainstream concern, it was already central to how my family and countless other families had experienced the family policing system,” writes Courtnie McMillan.
Pandemic Lockdown Traumas Were Temporary. Child Welfare Traumas Have Lasting Effects. — Center for New York City Affairs
The isolation and alienation so many faced during Covid-19 are all too familiar to families entangled in the child protective system.
www.centernyc.org