"Questioning Punishment": Henrique Carvalho and Anastasia Chamberlen with Andy West

The first of three events today to celebrate the launch of our new print issue on “Punishment”!

What is punishment? Who are punishment’s targets and subjects? How is punishment perpetuated and experienced? When and where does punishment unfold? Why do we punish?

This event will question punishment as concept, social phenomenon and contemporary practice. It will unpack punishment’s nature and the assumptions that underpin it, examine its targets, objectives and implications, locate punishment within its social contexts, and unsettle the idea that there is something commonsensical, necessary and unavoidable about punitive justice.

Henrique Carvalho is Reader in Law and co-Director of the Criminal Justice Centre at the University of Warwick. He is the author of The Preventive Turn in Criminal Law (2017) and (with Anastasia Chamberlen) Questioning Punishment (2024). His research interests include cultural theory, social theory, criminal law and justice, and the philosophy and sociology of punishment.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HRDCCarvalho

Anastasia Chamberlen is Associate Professor in Sociology and co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Warwick. She is the author of the book Embodying Punishment (2018) and (with Henrique Carvalho Questioning Punishment (2024). Her research interests include feminist theory, the sociology of prisons and punishment, embodiment, arts and aesthetics.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/a_chamberlen

Andy West is the author of The Life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Philosophy (Picador, 2022). He has written for The Guardian, Aeon, 3AM Magazine, Huck, The Big Issue, Open Democracy, The Lead, and The Times Education Supplement. He is philosopher in residence at HMP Brixton.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndyWPhilosophy