A new course is being offered at UC Santa Barbara that focuses on international conflict, unfreedom, and the fight against torture and carceralism on a global scale. 

 

UCSB Sociology department chair Lisa Hajjar created the course, Global Carceral States, after studying international conflict for 18 years and going on a two-week research trip to Chile with some UCSB students in 2023. Hajjar has also visited Guantanamo 14 times to study the subjugation of the detainees, and the fight to bring them justice. The course was offered for the first time this past winter, and will be offered again in winter 2025.

 

After writing her 1995 doctoral dissertation on Israeli military courts in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Hajjar pursued her interest in law, torture, and the role of law amid armed conflicts and violence. Following graduate school, she continued to write about torture and international conflict.

 

When Guantanamo opened in 2002 in response to 9/11, Hajjar became interested in how the U.S. imposed unfreedom on a large group of people and the unlawful use of torture there. Twenty-two years after first opening, the compound still operates, with 30 prisoners left.

 

 

In a recent interview, Hajjar spoke about the moment she heard that the Bush administration was going to authorize the use of kidnapping and torture tactics on the detainees at Guantanamo, to handle the war on terror. 

 

“Hearing the Bush administration describe what they were going to do in response to these terrorist attacks, I could hear the echoes of Israeli justifications,” Hajjar said. “I thought, ‘the United States is going to go down the torture trail.’” 

 

She made her first visit to Guantanamo in July of 2010 as a journalist, to attend military commission trials. Hajjar described the many restrictions journalists face when visiting Guantanamo, as the detention camp handles classified information. 

 

“We [journalists] are treated like children, we can't see things, we're subjected to censorship,” Hajjar said, recounting her visits to Guantanamo. “For me, it was fascinating to see what I call ‘standard operating paranoia’ that the government imposes on Guantanamo…but I definitely find it very important to be there.”

 

Hajjar created the new course after studying the complexity of carceral powers on a global scale. The course focuses intensely on international conflict, the resistance to unfreedom, the war against torture, and the Guantanamo military commission trials. She created the course after collaborating with Black Studies professor Terrance Wooten.

 

“Terrance and I sort of partnered up, and we created a hub for [UCSB’s]  Orfalea Center on global carceral states,” Hajjar said. That led to a two-day conference on the topic. “We got paper submissions from people writing from all over the world.”

 

Among the keynote speakers was Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a released Guantanamo detainee. A woman who deals with torture rehabilitation in Egypt was also a keynote speaker, as well a woman who works with those whose male relatives are in prison in Mexico.

 

Hajjar and Wooten offered a practicum in 2023 for undergraduate students who were interested in working with them on the global carceral states project. They also took four undergraduate students to Chile for two weeks on a research trip to look at carcerality there. Hajjar says the course “Global Carceral States” grew out of that, and is an ongoing process that continues to develop.

 

 

Two years ago, Hajjar published her book, “The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight Against Torture.” It’s about lawyers banding together to challenge the illegal treatment of Guantanamo prisoners. Hajjar says it describes the dire consequences of the U.S. government's choices during the war on terror, and how carceralization works to control people. She describes clashes of three interest groups in torture cases: defense teams, prosecutors, and the CIA.  

 

Hajjar said she was inspired to keep working on her book over the course of 10 years because of the selfless work done by unpaid lawyers, which she believes should be understood by Americans. Without the lawyers’ actions, detainees at Guantanamo would not be protected against torture, and there would still be 800 people at Guantanamo — not just the 30 who remain. 

 

The government made an egregious mistake when handling the war on terror, she says, and the consequences of the mistake persist as Guantanamo remains open today. Through the book and her course, Hajjar hopes that if the government ever decides to go down the torture route again, people will understand the dangers, and be inspired to advocate for those who can’t advocate for themselves.