Race and crime are deeply associated as both a historical and contemporary feature of American society. In this seminar, we will explore the myriad of ways that race and crime are mutually constituted; specifically, the way that the criminal process has been deployed to constitute race, and the way race has been used to define crime. From the convict leasing system in the post-slavery era to the modern growth of the penal industry, law has played a central role in both synthesizing race and crime as well as in regulating and ontaining its consequences. Thus, this seminar will examine the historical role that the criminal process has played in constructing and policing communities of color, the current manifestations of these dynamics, and the various critical discourses that these processes have engendered. Propelled by current efforts to rethink the role of the criminal justice system and its negative consequences for racially marginalized communities, we will consider a range of proposed interventions including legal reform, constitutional and human rights adjudication, jury nullification, and the prison abolition movement.