CSSD Executive Committee Member Featured in NBC New York Article
Professor Claudio Lomnitz interviewed by NBC New York for a piece discussing Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-Nominated film “Roma.”
Professor of Anthropology Claudio Lomnitz was interviewed for an NBC New York piece examining the depiction of 1970s Mexico in Alfonso Cuarón's film Roma. Professor Lomnitz offered historical context for the film's story and discussed how Mexican society has changed in the intervening years.
"The movie is to a great extent a story about modernization," said Professor Lomnitz. "We see two rural girls come from Oaxaca who have moved to the city. They are indigenous and they speak Mixtec, but they also speak Spanish, they go to the movies, they have sex."
The movie Roma is a drama that provides a gripping glimpse of Mexican society at the cusp of great social change in the early 1970s, a time of migration, urbanization and cultural transformation.
Click here to read the full article.
Professor Claudio Lomnitz works on the history, politics and culture of Latin America, and particularly of Mexico. He has a PhD from Stanford in 1987, and his first book, Evolución de una sociedad rural (Mexico City, 1982) was a study of politics and cultural change in Tepoztlán, Mexico.
The New Yorker Publishes Book Excerpt from Professor Saidiya Hartman
The forthcoming Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by former co-director of CSSD working group Engendering the Archive is set to be published February 19, 2019.
Saidiya Hartman, former co-director of CSSD working group Engendering the Archive, published in The New Yorker’s February 9, 2019 issue. The piece, “An Unnamed Girl, A Speculative History,” is an essay taken from her soon to be published book. The forthcoming Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval is set to be released February 19, 2019.
To read The New Yorker essay click here.
For more on Saidiya Hartman’s work at CSSD, see selections on our blog, YouTube channel and the Engendering the Archive project page.
Frances Negrón-Muntaner Publishes Article with the Hemispheric Institute
Co-director of CSSD working group Unpayable Debt: Capital, Violence, and the New Global Economy pens essay on the history of population expulsion policies in Puerto Rico.
In “The Emptying Island: Puerto Rican Expulsion in Post-Maria Time,” Unpayable Debt co-director Frances Negrón-Muntaner discusses the recent exodus of Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and its connection to a larger process of population expulsion policies in Puerto Rico over the last 525 years.
Negrón-Muntaner argues that “colonial emptying, rather than “normal” population growth, has been the most common experience in Puerto Rico” since Christopher Columbus claimed it for Spain in 1493. She traces back more than 100 years of US policies on the island that have efficiently exported hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans to the US mainland, highlighting the social, economic, and political implications of this “emptying island.”
Click here to read the article.
Frances Negrón-Muntaner is a filmmaker, writer, curator, scholar and professor at Columbia University, where she is also the founding curator of the Latino Arts and Activism Archive.
CSSD Welcomes Ayah Eldosougi, Program Coordinator
Join us in welcoming Ayah Eldosougi to the full-time staff of CSSD!
We are thrilled to announce that the Center for the Study of Social Difference has a new full-time staff member. Ayah Eldosougi, who has been invaluable at CSSD as a part-time temporary employee since last September, is now on board as full-time CSSD Program Coordinator.
Ayah played a key role in prepping for our Sep 28th anniversary symposium and in managing volunteer staff for our two-day Vernacular Photography event with the Walther Collection in October. She has been crucial in the smooth operation of several other events and especially of financial operations at CSSD in the past few months.
As Program Coordinator, Ayah will be working with us on event planning, working group communications, publicity and social media, and the management of our work study team, among other projects.
Click here to read Ayah’s bio!
Farah Jasmine Griffin Leads the New African American and African Diaspora Studies Department
Co-director of CSSD working group Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women chairs Columbia’s newly created department.
This past winter, Columbia University’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to create the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department.
Farrah J. Griffin, co-director of CSSD working group Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women and director of CSSD affiliate Institute for Research in African-American Studies, will lead the department as its first chair.
The development of the new department is the latest growth spurt in a scholarly interpretation of the black experience that began at Columbia in the early 20th century. According to Griffin, “the study of black life, in the western hemisphere in particular, is something that Columbia has been engaging in, and has been at the forefront of, since Zora Neale Hurston began her work here.” Griffin believes the new department will bring a fresh approach to the discipline at a crucial moment for race relations and black identity in our society.
Click here to read more.
Click here to learn more about the newly created African American and African Diaspora Studies Department.
Frances Negron Muntaner Launches Social Currency Project in Puerto Rico
The Valor y Cambio project is a response to the current economic crisis faced by the Caribbean island.
Unpayable Debt working group co-director Professor Frances Negron Muntaner, along with artist Sarabel Santos-Negron have created the social currency project Valor y Cambio set to launch in Puerto Rico. The project promotes the values of solidarity, equity, justice and creativity through the development of notes bearing the faces of different figures chosen for their commitment to a more fair Puerto Rico.
The creation of this social currency harkens back to discussions prompted at Unpayable Debt’s Reimagining Money workshop last October, where participants were asked to create their own forms of social currency.
To read the full article on the Valor y Cambio project click here
For more about the project visit the project website.
For coverage of the Unpayable Debt workshop visit our blog and twitter repcaps of the event.
Reframing Gendered Violence Working Group Hosts Public Workshop on Transgender Violence
The two-day Reframing Transgender Violence workshop featured scholars, activists, attorneys, and graduate students working across issues of transgender violence and justice.
Held on Thursday, January 24th and Friday, January 25th, and organized by Reframing Gendered Violence working group co-director Professor Kendall Thomas, the Reframing Transgender Violence workshop served as space for presenters to share their various work on the topic and interact with audience members through discussion. Speakers at the workshop included Catherine Clune-Taylor, Asli Zengin, Chinyere Ezie, Chase Strangio, Sergio Suiama, Joss Taylor Greene, C. Riley Snorton and Christina B. Hanhardt.
For a recap of the workshop visit our blog.
A full-length video of the workshop will be made available to the public in the hope of continuing the conversation.
Tey Meadow Interviewed in a Recent Piece for The Atlantic
Queer Theory: Here, Now, and Everywhere faculty fellow featured in an article on young trans children
Queer Theory: Here, Now, and Everywhere working group faculty fellow Tey Meadow was quoted in a recent piece for The Atlantic on new research findings which demonstrate strong self-knowledge and identity sense of young trans children.
The study by Kristina Olson, a psychologist at the University of Washington, tracked the health and well-being of 85 gender-nonconforming participants, ages 3 to 12, showing, in two separate ways, that those who go on to transition do so because they already have a strong sense of their identity.
According to Professor Meadow, parents contribute greatly to developing this strong self-knowledge and identity in young trans children. Parents are the ultimate arbiters of a child’s access to transition, and they make decisions “in a culture that encourages parents to look for every possible alternative to transness,” says Meadow.
Click here to read the full article.
Tey Meadow is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Columbia. She is the author of Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century, and the coeditor of Other Please Specify: Queer Methods in Sociology.
Menstrual Health and Gender Justice faculty fellow interviewed by public health podcast
Chris Bobel discusses public health field and the increasing attention on menstruation in the latest episode of Case Confirmed
Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group faculty fellow Chris Bobel talks about the public health field and the increasing attention on menstruation in the latest episode of Case Confirmed, a monthly public health podcast series.
In the episode, “Public Health Has Its Period,” Bobel explores the connections between menstrual taboo, public health campaigns, capitalism, and embodiment.
Click here to listen to the episode.
Chris Bobel is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston where she teaches courses on Gender & the Body, Feminist Theory, Feminist Research Methods, Women in US Social Movements and Feminist Activism.
Case Confirmed is a monthly public health podcast series that features interviews with top public health experts from around the world.
The Nation features piece from Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
A speaker from the Center for the Study of Social Difference’s anniversary symposium writes about the 2019 Women’s March.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Princeton professor in the department of African American studies and speaker at CSSD’s ten year anniversary symposium, discussed mass movements in relation to the third anniversary of the Women’s March in a recent article for The Nation. The article discusses the recent divisions in the organization of the Women’s March and their underlying tensions.
The Nation article is linked here.
A full length video of Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s participation in the CSSD anniversary symposium can be found here along with all other panels from the symposium on our YouTube channel.
Rebecca Traister pens “Don’t Give Up on the Women’s March” in The Cut
A panelist at the Women Creating Change five year anniversary, Traister discusses the most recent Women’s March in a new article.
Good and Mad author and panelist at the Women Creating Change five year anniversary celebration and roundtable event, Rebecca Traister addressed the continuity of the Women’s March in a recent article for The Cut.
The full article can be found here.
For a review of the Women Creating Change anniversary click here.
Introducing Inga Winkler, Director of Menstrual Health Working Group
Inga Winkler, Lecturer at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Human Rights Program at Columbia University, was featured on the recently launched blog periodsatcolumbia.com.
Inga Winkler, Lecturer at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Human Rights Program at Columbia University, was interviewed for the blog periodsatcolumbia.com, which was recently launched to highlight the achievements of Menstrual Health and Gender Justice, one of the newest Center for the Study of Social Difference working groups
In the interview, Dr. Winkler discusses how the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group is bringing an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of menstrual health, as well as the long term goals of the working group. She said part of their work involves broadening the discussion to include societal norms and stereotypes surrounding menstruation. You can read the full blog post here.
Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group launches new blog, Periodsatcolumbia.com
The Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD) working group Menstrual Health and Gender Justice launches a new blog.
CSSD working group Menstrual Health and Gender Justice launches a new blog.
The site will feature news, events, research, publications, and reflections by working group members and others in the field of menstrual health and gender justice.
The Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group seeks to further the nascent field of menstrual studies. The working group puts particular emphasis on critically evaluating the current state of research, advocacy and programming, with interest in examining whose voices are being represented in the field, which actors shape the dominant narrative, whose voices are marginalized, what the gaps are, and how interdisciplinary collaboration might help remedy some of these gaps.
Click here to access the blog.
Pedagogies of Dignity Working Group Hosts Workshop at Lenfest
On September 30th the CSSD working group Pedagogies of Dignity held a workshop bringing together formerly incarcerated students, educators, and activists to discuss prison education.
On September 30, 2018 the CSSD working group Pedagogies of Dignity supported a workshop at Columbia’s Lenfest Center for the Arts, the second such workshop of the Center for New Narratives in Philosophy. The workshop brought together formerly incarcerated students, academics, prison educators, and activists to discuss the benefits of prison education as well as challenges associated with it. The event was hosted by Christia Mercer, Gustave M. Berner Professor of philosophy at Columbia University and Project Director of the working group.
The Pedagogies of Dignity working group has been working with educational staff at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) to organize a series of mini-courses available to men of the MDC. These courses have been attended by over 140 men since February. A full recap of the September 30th workshop can be read here on the CSSD blog.
Professor Lydia Liu Writes Review in Artform
Co-director of working group Bandung Humanisms, Lydia Liu, discusses contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing’s exhibition “Thought and Method”
Wun Tsun Tam Professor in the Humanities, and co-director of the CSSD Bandung Humanisms working group, Lydia Liu describes artist Xu Bing’s Beijing retrospective multimedia exhibition as both “transformative” and “executed with disciplined craftsmanship”. She goes on to write that, “The tension between sensory stimulation and intellectual rigor is one of the works' strongest animating forces, leading to a sequence of revelations about the place of 'truth' in moments of suspended sensory certainties."
Professor Liu’s review can be found here.
More on “Xu Bing: Thought and Method” can be read here.
Student Reflects on Max Haiven’s New Book and the Updated Caribbean Syllabus
Columbia College student Arianna Scott reflects on a recent event held by CSSD working group Unpayable Debt.
On October 10th the CSSD working group, Unpayable Debt, held an event to launch Max Haiven’s new book, Art After Money, Money After Art, as well as the second edition of the Caribbean Debt Syllabus.
Following the event, Columbia College student Arianna Faria Scott wrote a reflection in which she shares the impression made on her by Haiven’s ideas. In addition, she shares her perspective on debt in the Caribbean drawing on her experience in Guyana growing up in a family descended from indentured laborers. Her full reflection can be read here on the CSSD blog.
Inga Winkler Speaks about Menstrual Health with Devex
Inga Winkler, director of the working group Menstrual Health and Gender Justice, speaks about improving menstrual health management and research.
Inga Winkler, lecturer in political science at Columbia University and project director of the Center for the Study of Social Difference working group Menstrual Health and Gender Justice, spoke with Devex about menstrual health management and research. She stated that often the development sector focuses on quick fixes without addressing broader social issues related to menstruation.
Winkler and other individuals interviewed for the article call for a broader recognition of menstrual health challenges and more detailed research. The full article can be read here.
Professor Ed Morales Writes a Follow-up on Hurricane Maria in the New York Times
About a year after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Unpayable Debt working group faculty fellow Ed Morales revisits the humanitarian crisis still affecting the people of the island.
About a year after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the Center for the Study of Social Difference’s Unpayable Debt working group faculty fellow, Ed Morales, revisits the humanitarian crisis still affecting the people of the island.
The article highlights the difficulties Puerto Ricans continue to face as well as their resilience in rebuilding in the wake of the hurricane. It also addresses the persistent healthcare crisis and debt affecting the island.
To read the full NYT article click here.
For Morales’ piece on Hurricane Maria last year, click here.
Professor Jack Halberstam featured in Places Journal
Jack Halberstam, director of CSSD working group Queer Theory: Here, Now, and Everywhere, writes on the interplay between art, architecture and the trans* body, in Places.
Professor Jack Halberstam, director of Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD) working group Queer Theory: Here, Now, and Everywhere, publishes “Unbuilding Gender: Trans* Anarchitectures In and Beyond the Work of Gordon Matta-Clark” in Places Journal.
Professor Halberstam explores the interplay between art, architecture and the trans* body and discusses the impact of Matta-Clark’s art and its legacy to young trans* artists.
Click here to read the full article.
CEO and CSSD Leadership Council Member, Davia Temin, highlighted by Bloomberg
Davia Temin, through her company, Temin and Company supports the #MeToo Movement through the creation of a database of documented perpetrators.
Davia Temin, a member of CSSD’s Women Creating Change Leadership Council and founder and CEO of Temin and Company, a boutique management consultancy, was recently featured in Bloomberg for her ongoing efforts to support the #MeToo movement. Temin and her all-female staff are responsible for what they refer to as “the index”, a database of individuals previously documented as perpetrators of sexual misconduct, violence and abuse.
To read the Bloomberg article click here.
To learn more about the Women Creating Change Leadership Council click here.