A’Lelia Bundles Featured in book Journeys: An American Story

A’lelia Bundles, member of the Women Creating Change Leadership Council and vice chair of the Columbia Board of Trustees, is one 72 individuals to be featured in the book, Journeys: An American Story. The book is a collection of essays about immigration and American greatness. It tells the stories of the people who came to this country and made it what it is today.

A full summary of the book can be found here.

Andreas Huyssen Interviewed on Memory Studies in Politika

Andreas Hyussen, faculty fellow with the Women Mobilizing Memory Group and Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was interviewed by Patrick Esser for Politika. In the interview he talks broadly about memory studies, touching on how the past and the present become entangled in his work.

In addition he discusses how incorporating the arts and humanities into memory culture can make for an interconnected world. The work done on postmemory by fellow working group member Marianne Hirsch is also a topic of conversation.

The full interview can be read here.

Lila Abu-Lughod Reviews New Books on Palestinian Diaspora

Lila Abu-Lughod, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science and co-director of CSSD working group Religion and the Global Framing of Gender Violence, has shared a piece in the publication Public Books. In her contribution she reviews two books about being part of the Palestinian Diaspora. The piece is entitled, “Moods of Betrayal in the Story of Palestine,” and reviews the work of two Palestinian authors, Reja-e Busailah and Hala Alyan.

The full review of both books can be read here.

Professor Inga Winkler Speaks at UN Event on Menstrual Health

Inga Winkler, director of the CSSD working group Menstrual Health and Gender Justice, spoke at a UN panel discussion hosted by Simavi and WSSCC on July 11th. In her talk Dr. Winkler addressed the many ways people are affected by menstruation as well as how menstruation impacts sustainable development goals.

During the panel she stressed the importance of including women and girls of diverse backgrounds in the conversation in order to truly understand how culture and religion affect menstrual practices. A full recap of the talk can be read here.

Professor Inga Winkler Speaks at UN Event on Menstrual Health

On July 11, 2018, Simavi and WSSCC hosted a panel discussion during the UN’s High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, about “Putting Menstrual Health on the 2030 Agenda,” which featured Institute for the Study of Human Rights professor Dr. Inga Winkler as both the keynote speaker and a panelist. Dr. Winkler is director of the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group at the Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University.

In her keynote address, Dr. Winkler emphasized the importance of removing Menstrual Hygiene Management  (MHM) strictly from the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector in order to unpack and address issues around menstruation at all levels. She stressed the need to look at the numerous ways that people are affected by menstruation and how menstruation is directly linked to many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the 2030 agenda, such as Good Health and Well-Being, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Responsible Consumption and Production.

Dr. Winkler stressed the importance of including women and girls in the discussion, especially those who are traditionally marginalized or excluded. The range of experiences individuals have with menstruation should be addressed in order to leave no one behind. For example, indigenous women, women with disabilities, refugee and migrant women and girls, homeless individuals, incarcerated women, and the LGBTQI community all face overlapping forms of discrimination and are often left out of the MHM conversation.

Dr. Winkler also noted the large role that religion and culture play in regards to menstrual practices, but that it should remain up to the menstruating individual whether or not to partake in them. In this way these individuals maintain their agency, which is the driving force behind the SDGs.

Written by Human Rights graduate students Trisha Maharaj and Tori Miller.

Inga Winkler to speak at UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

Dr. Inga Winkler, Director of newly-launched CSSD working group Menstrual Health and Gender Justice, will speak on a panel titled "Putting Menstrual Health on the 2030 Agenda" at a side event of the 2018 United Nations' High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

This panel discussion, with Irene Gai (Programme Coordinator, Kenya Water for Health) and Mahbuba Kumkum (Programme Manager Ritu at Simavi, Bangladesh) will take place on July 11, 2018 at 10am at the Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza, 1 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, and will be moderated by Hilda Alberda (Director PMEL, Menstrual Health Expert at Simavi, The Netherlands).

A live stream of the event will be available here.

Frances Negron-Muntaner Speaks with El Diario

Frances Negron-Muntaner, co-director of the working group Unpayable Debt and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, spoke with El Diario about the photographic archive that they recently donated to Columbia Libraries. The full interview can be read here.

She was also featured on The Takeaway, where she spoke with film critic Rafer Guzman about the film Sicario: Day of the Soldado. The full episode can be listened to here.

CSSD Director Marianne Hirsch Speaks in Chile

CSSD Director and William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature Marianne Hirsch visited Chile in early June to speak at several events, including a colloquium on Postmemory and a seminar entitled “The Future of the Past,” organized by Universidad Católica.

During the seminar, Hirsch, together with Leo Spitzer, Professor Emeritus of History at Dartmouth, presented a lecture entitled “School Pictures in Troubled Times,” in which they examined several aspects of school photos taken during periods of persecution and resistance in history.

In addition, at the colloquium “Postmemory: Conversations on Human Rights and Migrations,” Hirsch discussed the role of feminism in memory studies as well as the ways in which memories of violent histories can be utilized for a better future.

A complete report from Columbia Global Center | Santiago can be read here.

Kevin Fellezs speaks about Ethnomusicology with Columbia College Today

Kevin Fellezs, member of the CSSD working group Pacific Climate Circuits and Associate Professor of music at Columbia University, was featured in the Summer 2018 issue of Columbia College Today. In the interview he talks about how he grew to love music and his experiences both as a student and a teacher.

The full interview can be read here.

CSSD Fellow Yasmin El-Rifae discusses how the #MeToo movement can learn from the Egyptian revolution

Yasmin El-Rifae, journalist and media fellow for the Center for the Study of Social Difference working group, Religion and the Global Framing of Gender Violence, has been featured in The Nation with an article entitled “What the Egyptian Revolution Can Offer #MeToo.” In the article she shares her experience protecting women from sexual assault and discusses what the #MeToo movement can learn from feminists in other parts of the world. She writes, “...by separating out the struggles and experiences of Arab women we exclude them from the wider conversation and, in doing so, make their experiences less available and less useful to the rest of the world—most importantly, to women elsewhere who are thinking about similar problems.”

Christia Mercer Delivers Keynote Address

Christia Mercer, director of the working group Pedagogies of Dignity, delivered the keynote address, "Descartes’ Demons and Debts, or Why We Should Work on Women in the History of Philosophy," at the Dutch Seminar for Early Modern Philosophy at Utrecht University this May.

The Dutch Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy brings together advanced students and established scholars to discuss the latest work in early modern philosophy, broadly conceived.

Videos from the seminar can be viewed here.

Professor Jack Halberstam receives honorary doctorate

Jack Halberstam, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English at Columbia University, and Director of the CSSD working group Queer Theory: Here, Now, and Everywhere, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Lund University in Sweden for his work on the fluid boundaries of gender in society. Professor Halberstam accepted the honorary doctorate in a ceremony on May 25, 2018. More information available here.

Queer Theory: Here, There, and Everywhere is a CSSD working group to discuss, debate and investigate the politics of sexuality and gender in a global frame.

CSSD Director Marianne Hirsch to speak at Columbia Global Center in Chile

CSSD Director and William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Marianne Hirsch, will be speaking at the Columbia University Global Center in Santiago, Chile on the 31st of May as part of a symposium entitled El Futuro del Pasado (The Future of the Past), in a discussion about school portraits in difficult times.

During Professor Hirsch’s time with CSSD, she has served as co-director of several working groups including, Reframing Gendered Violence, Women Mobilizing Memory and Engendering the Archive.

New Caribbean Syllabus from Unpayable Debt working group

CSSD working group “Unpayable Debt” has just published the first ever digital resource to study debt and the Caribbean, "Caribbean Syllabus: Life and Debt in the Caribbean." Frances Negron-Muntaner and Sarah Muir, co-directors of the Unpayable Debt working group, have contributed to the syllabus, as have many participants in the recent Frontiers of Debt conference organized by the working group.

Pedagogies of Dignity working group director awarded fellowship

Christia Mercer is Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and Project Director of the new CSSD working group, Pedagogies of Dignity. She has been awarded a fellowship at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study for her project “Feeling the Way to Truth: Women, Reason, and the Development of Modern Philosophy. ” She will be the Mildred Londa Weisman Fellow for 2018-19.

Kellie Jones Receives Honorary Degree from Amherst College

Kellie Jones, member of the working group Engendering the Archive and Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from her alma mater Amherst College to recognize her leadership in the field of Art History.  

She has also been awarded the Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award following the publication of her latest book, South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s.

Congratulations to CSSD graduate fellows and assistants on defending their dissertations

Congratulations to the following Ph.D. candidates who have defended their dissertations and received their Ph.D.s this year! All of these students have been invaluable members of working groups at the Center for the Study of Social Difference, as graduate fellows or graduate assistants:

From the Women Mobilizing Memory working group:

Nicole Gervasio (English)

Andrew Crow (English)

Alyssa Greene (German)

From the Social Justice After the Welfare State working group:

Anna Halperin (History)

George Aumoithe (History)

From the Pacific Climate Circuits working group:

Patrick Nason (Anthropology)

New working groups at CSSD launching AY2018-19

CSSD launches six new projects for the 2018-19 academic year. The projects will address gender, race, sexuality, and other forms of inequality to foster ethical and progressive social change.

Racial Capitalism: This working group theorizes the connections between exploitation and expropriation in interlinked political geographies. The Racial Capitalism working group will build on and also expand already existing efforts of the Barnard New Directions in American Studies (NDAS) initiative.
Project Directors: Jordan T. Camp, Christina Heatherton, and Manu Vimalassery

On The Frontlines: Nursing Leadership in Pandemics: The working group On the Frontlines: Nursing Leadership in Pandemics seeks to understand the role of nurses as change agents in the prevention, detection and response to pandemic infectious disease outbreaks.
Project Directors: Jennifer Dohrn, Wilmot James, Steve Nicholas, Victoria Rosner

Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City: Geographies of Injustice is a working group of interdisciplinary scholars who are interested in asking how spatial politics intersects with inequality and social difference (race, caste, and ethnicity).
Project Directors: Anupama Rao, Ana Paulina Lee

Menstrual Health and Gender Justice: The Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group seeks to further the nascent field of menstrual studies. This group puts particular emphasis on critically evaluating the current state of research and how interdisciplinary collaboration might help remedy some of these gaps.
Project Director: Inga Winkler

Pedagogies of Dignity: Pedagogies of Dignity is an interdisciplinary initiative that brings together formerly incarcerated people, activists, faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Project Director: Christia Mercer

Queer Theory: Here, Now, and Everywhere: Queer Theory: Here, There, and Everywhere is a CSSD working group to discuss, debate and investigate the politics of sexuality and gender in a global frame.
Project Director: Jack Halberstam

Women Creating Change Leadership Council meets for the second time

The Women Creating Change Leadership Council met for the second time in New York on April 12, 2018. Professors Anupama Rao and Ana Paulina Lee presented on their work on the Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City project.  Lila Abu-Lughod presented on her work on the Religion and the Global Reframing of Gender Violence project. Marianne Hirsch discussed new CSSD projects which will launch in 2018 and 2019. Bindu Bansinath, a student in a course inspired by WCC called “Narrating Rape,” spoke about her published essay in the New York times.   

Participants included:

Ann Kaplan
Annette Anthony
Lisa Carnoy
Isobel Coleman
Deborah Jackson
Safwan Masri
Molly Mathews Multedo
Cynthia Moses-Manocherian
Alyson Neel
Philippa Portnoy        
Marianne Hirsch
Meera Ananth
Carolyn Ferguson
Lila Abu-Lughod
Catherine LaSota
Ana Paulina Lee
Anupama Rao
Bindu Bansinath
S. Mona Sinha
Selena Soo
A’lelia Bundles
Esta Stecher
Melissa Fisher                           
Amal Ghandour                        
Jacki Zehner
Davia Temin  

The Women Creating Change Leadership Council is comprised of individuals who are committed to the exploration of issues which affect women and the ways in which women address global gender challenges. The mission of the Council is to promote interdisciplinary collaborative research and to sponsor events that publicize this important work.   

Democracy and The Welfare State: The Two Wests In The Age of Austerity will be presented at the Columbia Global Centers - Paris

Columbia Global Centers - Paris, in partnership with Columbia University Press  and Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po will host a book presentation for Democracy and the Welfare State: The Two Wests in the Age of Austerity, edited by CSSD project director Alice Kessler-Harris and Maurizio Vaudagna. 

Alice Kessler-Harris is project director for CSSD working group Social Justice After the Welfare State. The research of CSSD working group Social Justice After the Welfare State inspired the creation of this book.

The book presentation will be held at the Columbia Global Centers - Paris
4,Rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris, France.