A Message from the Staff of CSSD: Solidarity With Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities
The Center for the Study of Social Difference expresses solidarity with members of Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities and with the families of those we have lost.
A Message From The Staff of CSSD:
Solidarity With Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities
The Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD) is deeply saddened by the recent murders in Georgia and the ongoing attacks of hatred against members of our AAPI communities. We must continue the important work of addressing systemic racism and dismantling white supremacy. We stand in solidarity with the families of those we have lost and all who are mourning.
Signed,
The Staff of CSSD
Paige West, Director
Catherine LaSota, Executive Director
Ayah Eldosougi, Program Coordinator
Fahmida Hussain, Business Officer
CSSD Director Featured in New York Times Article
Paige West, former co-director of the Pacific Climate Circuits working group, calls attention to the relationship between biodiversity decline and colonialism.
Paige West, anthropologist and current director of Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Social Difference, was quoted in a New York Times article published this week titled “There’s a Global Plan to Conserve Nature. Indigenous People Could Lead the Way.” In the article, Professor West highlights the extent to which contemporary climate change and worsening biodiversity is linked to vestiges of colonialism. Paige West was a co-director of the former group Pacific Climate Circuits: Moving Beyond Science, Technology, Engineering and Economics, a CSSD working group in which researchers utilized historically-bound and socioeconomic frameworks to create solutions around climate change in different regions.
Read the full NYT article here and learn more about Paige West’s work here.
CSSD Stands in Solidarity With Graduate Workers of Columbia University
As the staff of CSSD, we support graduate workers' right to withhold their labor as part of the collective bargaining process.
CSSD Stands in Solidarity With Graduate Workers of Columbia University
As the staff of the Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD), we express our solidarity with all students affiliated with CSSD who are members of the Graduate Workers of Columbia University (GWC-UAW Local 2110). We support the graduate workers’ right to act on the vote of the overwhelming majority of the bargaining team and to withhold their labor as part of the collective bargaining process. As fellow employees of this university, we urge the administration to conclude the bargaining process fairly and expeditiously.
Signed,
The Staff of CSSD
Brent Hayes Edwards Spotlighted for “Quarantine Collages”
The New York Times art critic listed Professor Edwards’s Instagram as one of five art accounts to follow.
A New York Times art critic listed Professor Brent Hayes Edwards’s Instagram account as one of five to follow for his indispensable “quarantine collages.” Read the full article here.
Edwards teaches English and comparative literature at Columbia, and was a member of CSSD’s former working groups The Digital Black Atlantic and The Rural-Urban Interface: Gender and Poverty in Ghana and Kenya, Statistics and Stories.
Co-director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity interviewed by US News
Executive Committee member Karl Jacoby spoke about the legal battle between the Apache Tribal members and US Forest Service.
Historian Karl Jacoby, co-director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and member of the CSSD Executive Committee, was interviewed in US News about a legal challenge brought by Apache tribal members against the US Forest Service to prevent a parcel of land from becoming a copper mine. Professor Jacoby also wrote in Public Books on the United States' 19th-century frontier wars and more recent imperialist conflicts.
Anupama Rao will be moderating a discussion on the Dalit Panthers and Literary Insurgence
This talk is a part of the Understanding Systemic Racism: Art and Politics series hosted by the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University.
Anupama Rao, co-director of the Geographies of Injustice working group, will be moderating a discussion on The Dalit Panthers and Literary Insurgence as part of the “Understanding Systemic Racism: Art and Politics” series hosted by the Institute of Comparative Literature and Society. Featured guest speakers include Suraj Yengde (Harvard University) and Yogesh Maitreya (Panther’s Paw Publication).
To learn more about Professor Anupama Rao’s work at CSSD visit the Gender & the Global Slum and Reframing Gendered Violence working group pages.
Queer Aqui Working group fellow featured in the Hawai’i Contemporary Art Summit
Elizabeth Povinelli and the Karrabing Film Collective screened a visual essay for the conference
Anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli, Queer Aqui, Liberalism's Others, and Borders and Boundaries working group fellow and collaborators the Karrabing Film Collective were among the featured artists who participated in the 2021 Hawai'i Contemporary Art Summit. The program explored the theme for Hawai‘i Triennial 2022, Pacific Century – E Ho‘omau no Moananuiākea. On February 11th, Professor Povinelli and the Karrabing Film collective shared a visual essay on toxic sovereignties, reclamation, and the stakes of staying connected to ancestral places, titled: The Jealous One (2017).
Farah Jasmine Griffin to Deliver Virtual Lecture at Hollins University
The co-director of the Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women working group will discuss the singer and activist Billie Holiday
Farah Jasmine Griffin, co-director of the Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women working group, will deliver the virtual lecture "Returning to Lady: A Reflection 'In Search of Billie Holiday,'" as part of the Hollins University Dee Hull Everist Visiting Speaker Series. This online event will take place Thursday, February 25th at 7:30 PM.
To connect to the event you must reach out by 3:00 pm EST the day of the event, email the event name, your name, phone number, and, if different, the name on your Zoom account to creative.writing@hollins.edu.
Engendering the Archive Working Group Fellow was a guest on The Dean's Table
Mabel O. Wilson spoke with Fredrick Harris, Columbia University Dean of the Division of Social Science.
Mabel O. Wilson, Engendering the Archive Working and Reframing Gendered Violence working group fellow, spoke with Columbia University Dean of Social Science Fredrick Harris on his podcast, The Dean's Table. Professor Wilson spoke about how she decided on becoming an architect, reflected on her work which explores the history of Black exhibitions and museums, and shared insights into scholarship and practices of race, space, and culture.
Mabel O. Wilson interviewed by Washington Post
Engendering the Archive Working Group Fellow spoke to the Post about the Capitol riots and racial injustice in the police responses to protesting.
Mabel O. Wilson, Engendering the Archive Working and Reframing Gendered Violence working group fellow was interviewed by The Washington Post. She spoke about the racial injustice of rioters attacking the US Capitol without consequence, while Black Americans peacefully protesting police violence have been regularly met with outsized force.
Maya Sabatello featured in the Research Ethics & Compliance – Film Discussions series
The Director of the Precision Medicine Working Group will be discussing the science fiction film “Gattaca, on March 8th from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm.
Maya Sabatello, Director of the Precision Medicine Working Group, will be featured in the Research Ethics & Compliance – Film Discussions series. Professor Sabatello, Arthur Caplan, and moderator Shawna Benston will be discussing “Gattaca,” a science fiction film concerning genetics, eugenics, reproductive technologies, and genetic discrimination. This event is co-sponsored by The Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture Project. This event will be held online via Zoom. Register here.
Queer Aqui Co-Director Authors New Book
Jack Halberstam’s Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire (2020) is published by Duke University Press.
Jack Halberstam, co-director of the Queer Aqui working group, recently published the new book Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire (2020). In the book, Professor Halberstam offers an alternative history of sexuality by tracing the ways in which wildness has been associated with queerness and queer bodies throughout the twentieth century.
CSSD Media Fellow Awarded Open City Fellowship by The Asian American Writers' Workshop (AAWW)
As an AAWW fellow Jessica Jacolbe will report on Asian diasporic and Muslim communities in New York City.
Geographies of Injustice Media Fellow, Jessica Jacolbe has been named a 2021 Open City Fellow by The Asian American Writers’ Workshop. During her nine month fellowship Jessica will be reporting on Asian diasporic and Muslim communities in New York City, specifically writing arts and culture stories and reporting on the Flushing and Woodside neighborhoods in Queens.
For a full list of AAWW 2021 Margins and Open City Fellows click here.
CSSD Director Honored as One of 50 Explorers Changing the World
Paige West is highlighted by Forbes as one of 21 women to receive this recognition.
Paige West, Director of the Center for the Study of Social Difference and Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology, was named as one of 50 honorees who are changing the world by the Explorers Club. This designation honors Professor West's years of work in conservation and biodiversity, and collaborations with indigenous communities. She is one out of 21 women to receive this honor and is highlighted by Forbes.
Read the full Forbes article here.
See the full list of the Explorers Club 50 here.
Learn more about Professor West’s work at CSSD through her past working groups:
Reframing Gendered Violence
Pacific Climate Circuits: Moving Beyond Science, Technology, Engineering, and Economics
Premilla Nadasen Named the Winner of the 2020 Ann Snitow Prize
The Transnational Black Feminisms co-director is the inaugural recipient of this award recognizing a feminist of outstanding vision, originality, generosity, and effectiveness, whose work combines intellectual and/or artistic pursuits with feminist and social justice activism.
Premilla Nadasen, co-director of the Transnational Black Feminisms and Social Justice After the Welfare State working groups, was awarded the 2020 Ann Snitow Prize for her extraordinary work as a feminist intellectual and activist. Professor Nadasen is the inaugural winner of the annual award, which recognizes a feminist of outstanding vision, originality, generosity, and effectiveness, whose work combines intellectual and/or artistic pursuits with feminist and social justice activism. After a short award ceremony, Dr. Nadasen was joined by Dr. Barbara Ransby for a conversation, The Politics of Care: Feminism, Race, and Grassroots Organizing.
Pacific Climate Circuits Co-Director Kevin Fellezs Moderates Symposium on Racial Equity
A recording of the full discussion on "Asian American Musicians Advocating for Social Justice and Racial Equity" can be found online.
Kevin Fellezs, former co-director of the Pacific Climate Circuits working group, moderated the recent symposium, "Asian American Musicians Advocating for Social Justice and Racial Equity," sponsored by Kul-Arts and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. The discussion featured Francis Wong, Jon Jang, Jen Shyu, Karl Evangelista, Erika Oba, and Vijay Iyer and focused on connections between these artists' work and their political advocacy as Asian Americans in the face of rising anti-Asian racism.
Women Mobilizing Memory Working Group Co-Director Interviewed by the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM)
The conversation with Marianne Hirsch appears in the Observing Memories Magazine.
Marianne Hirsch, former Director of the Center for the Study of Social Difference and co-director of past working groups including Women Mobilizing Memory, Reframing Gendered Violence, and Engendering the Archive was interviewed by the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM) in their Observing Memories Magazine. In the interview, Professor Hirsch spoke about the transmission of trauma across generations, the role of memory in social movements, and memory’s ability to strengthen democracy.
Call for Proposals Now Open
The Center welcomes proposals for new working groups that would begin in Fall 2021 or Fall 2022. The submission deadline is Monday, March 22, 2021 by 11:59pm.
The Center welcomes proposals for new working groups that would begin in Fall 2021 or Fall 2022. CSSD seeks projects that align with the mission of “Women Creating Change” or “Imagining Justice” and favors proposals from an interdisciplinary core working group (usually 5-8 people, not all of whom need be affiliated with Columbia or Barnard). The Center encourages and facilitates international collaborations.
Complete proposals should be directed to CSSD Executive Director Catherine LaSota (cl2866@columbia.edu), by Monday, March 22, 2021 at 11:59pm. Projects will be selected by the CSSD Executive Committee. All applicants will be notified by mid-April 2021.
View the full project guidelines here.
The Menstrual Health and Gender Justice Working Group Officially Launches the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies
Lead handbook editor Chris Bobel and co-editors Breanne Fahs, Tomi-Ann Roberts, Katie-Ann Hasson, Elizabeth Arveda Kissling, and Inga Winkler unveiled the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies during a virtual event on October 8th, 2020
Fellows of the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group officially launched the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies at a virtual event on October 8th, 2020. Lead handbook editor Chris Bobel and co-editors Breanne Fahs, Tomi-Ann Roberts, Katie-Ann Hasson, Elizabeth Arveda Kissling, and Inga Winkler, introduced the 1000+ page handbook and hosted a live Q&A session on handbook’s accessibility and potential to create change around the conversation on menstruation.
Read and download the complete open access handbook here.