Office of the Provost Mid-Career Faculty Grant
Congratulations to Spring 2021 Grant awardees Kevin Fellezs (Music), Natasha Lightfoot (History), and Camille Robcis (French, History).
We are pleased to congratulate CSSD working group members Kevin Fellezs, Natasha Lightfoot and Camille Robcis on receiving a Spring 2021 Columbia Office of the Provost Mid-Career Faculty Grant in recognition of significant contributions to their fields.
Kevin Fellezs received the grant for his work on The Love Song in Black Popular Music, 1945-2000. He is Associate Professor of Music, Ethnomusicology & African American & African Diaspora Studies and former co-director of CSSD’s Pacific Climate Circuits: Moving Beyond Science, Technology, Engineering, and Economics working group.
Assistant Professor Natasha Lightfoot received the grant for work on her project, Fugitive Cosmopolitans and the Making of the Black Atlantic. She teaches Caribbean, Atlantic World, and African Diaspora History, and was a member of CSSD’s former Digital Black Atlantic working group.
Associate Professor Camille Robcis received the grant for her forthcoming project, tentatively titled The Gender Question: Populism, National Reproduction, and the Crisis of Representation, in which she explores the protests against the so-called “theory of gender” and their conceptual links to populism. She teaches modern European intellectual history, and is a member of CSSD working group Queer Aqui.
New Social Engagement Projects at the Center for the Study of Social Difference
These new groups will build on established CSSD projects in alignment with Columbia University's Fourth Purpose.
The Center for the Study of Social Difference is proud to announce the inaugural recipients of CSSD’s Social Engagement Grants, The Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Repair and Reconstructing History in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro and Dharavi, Mumbai. Each of these new projects are lead by current and former CSSD working directors and to build on the work of CSSD groups, moving that work toward new forms of public engagement and partnerships, in alignment with Columbia University's Fourth Purpose. To learn more about each of these projects visit their project pages linked above.
Saidiya Hartman Receives PEN America Literary Award
Professor Hartman was announced as one of the 2021 Award Winners for her recent book, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals.
Saidiya Hartman Receives PEN America Literary Award
We are pleased to congratulate Saidiya Hartman, former co-director of the Gender & the Global Slum and Engendering the Archive working groups, on receiving a PEN America Literary Award for her recent book. Professor Hartman was a recipient of the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction for her book entitled Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals.
Read more about her book and this special distinction here.
Kevin Fellezs in The Guardian
Professor Fellezs commented on protest songs and “freedom musics” in this polarized time
Informed by his work on the intersections of music and collective liberation, Professor Kevin Fellezs commented on “freedom musics” in The Guardian’s article on rightwing co-optations of protest songs.
Kevin Fellezs is Associate Professor of Music, Ethnomusicology & African American & African Diaspora Studies and former co-director of CSSD’s Pacific Climate Circuits: Moving Beyond Science, Technology, Engineering, and Economics working group.
CSSD Faculty Recipients of Guggenheim Fellowship
We are excited to announce that Paige West, CSSD Director, and Farah Griffin, former co-director of a Women Creating Change working group, have been named 2021 Fellows for their extraordinary and productive scholarship.
CSSD Faculty Recipients of Guggenheim Fellowship
The Center for the Study of Social Difference proudly congratulates Paige West, Director of CSSD, and Farah Jasmine Griffin, co-director of past Women Creating Change working group Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women. This follows up Paige's honor just earlier this year as one of 50 Explorers Changing the World.
We are fortunate to have the leadership of these incredible scholars at our Center. Our faculty are doing outstanding work, and it is wonderful to see them receive these well-deserved honors.
Congratulations Paige and Farah!
The full list of 2021 Guggenheim Fellows can be found here.
Anupama Rao Participates in Panel Discussion on Historian Sumit Guha’s book
The co-director of the Geographies of Injustice working group spoke about the book History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000.
Anupama Rao, co-director of the Geographies of Injustice working group, was a discussant for a recent virtual book talk event highlighting the historian Sumit Guha’s work History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000.
Farah Jasmine Griffin Contributes Essay to the collection Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
This piece by the Toward An Intellectual History Of Black Women working group director focuses on the Harlem Renaissance.
Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin, co-director of the Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women working group, contributed an essay on the Harlem Renaissance to the collection Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.
Professor Griffin’s essay can be found here.
Motherhood and Technology working group fellow publishes book review in Public Books
Emily Bloom wrote a review of Emma Donoghue's The Pull of the Stars.
Motherhood and Technology working group fellow, Emily Bloom wrote about gothic literature's ability to convey the claustrophobia of motherhood during a pandemic in her review of Emma Donoghue's The Pull of the Stars, in Public Books.
To learn more about the work of Motherhood and Technology and its fellows visit the working group page here.
Rachel Adams interviewed by the Spectator and Columbia News
The director of the Future of Disability Studies working group spoke about how she has updated her class for the pandemic.
Director of the Future of Disability Studies, and the Precision Medicine: Ethics Politics and Culture working groups, Rachel Adams was featured in two articles in which she discussed the ways she has updated her courses to adapt to current pandemic-related issues. She discussed her course "Comics, Health, and Embodiment" in Columbia News, and her "Advanced Topics in Medical Humanities" course in Spectator.
Co-director of the Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women working group interviewed by Columbia News
Farah Jasmine Griffin spoke about the meaning of Black History Month in our current moment
Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin, co-director of the Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women working group, spoke about the meaning of Black History Month in our current moment with Columbia News.
Director of the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group interviewed by NPR
Inga Winkler discussed combating period stigma and created a zine with the author of the article
Inga Winkler, director of the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group, was interviewed by NPR for the article, A Menstrual Expert's Surprising Tips On How To Talk About Your Period. The article also included a zine co-written by Inga Winkler and Malaka Gharib, which provides tips on how to fight menstrual stigma.
For more on Inga Winkler’s work on Menstruation and Gender Justice visit the working group blog. https://periodsatcolumbia.com/
Frances Negron-Muntaner Interviewed by WNYC’s The Takeaway Podcast
The co-director of the Unpayable Debt working group spoke about the financial future of Puerto Rico.
Professor Frances Negron-Muntaner, co-director of the Unpayable Debt working group, was interviewed on WNYC's The Takeaway podcast about the financial future of Puerto Rico under the Biden administration.
Tey Meadow and L.A. Paul Co-author New Article Published by Texte Zur Kunst
This piece, by the Queer Aqui working fellow, reflects on life experiences during the pandemic lockdown.
Sociologist and Queer Aqui working group fellow, Tey Meadow and philosopher L.A. Paul co-authored a chronicle of their different experiences during the past year of pandemic lockdown. Among the piece's considerations are the authors' reflections on new attunements to time and subjectivity as well as greater attention to small experiences.
The full piece can be read here.
Columbia University Partners with Howard University to Launch New Collaborative Black Studies Book Series, Diversity Program
Kevin Fellezs and Farah Jasmine Griffin will be editorial board members for this historic collaboration.
Columbia University Press, in collaboration with Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences and Columbia's Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, is launching a new Black studies book series, with additional plans to recruit students for careers in the publishing industry. Co-director of the Pacific Climate Circuits working group, Kevin Fellezs, and co-director of the Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women, Farah Jasmine Griffin, will be two of the four editorial board members representing Columbia in this historic collaboration.
Elizabeth Povinelli in Virtual Dialogue with Frontier Imaginaries Founder
The Queer Aqui working group fellow member spoke with Vivan Ziherl at the event hosted by SVA NYC.
The School of Visual Arts New York City recently hosted Professor Elizabeth Povinelli, Queer Aqui, Liberalism's Others, and Borders and Boundaries working group fellow, in a virtual dialogue with Vivian Ziherl, curator and founder of Frontier Imaginaries, for a discussion on how colonial norms and forces “appear,” how curating is implicated, and how social gatherings, exhibitions, images, and forms can rebel.
Menstrual Health Blog Written by Working Group Fellow
Trisha Maharaj has published a blog that explores the relationship between women’s agency, menstrual practices, and religion within Hindu communities in Trinidad.
Trisha Maharaj is part of the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group that aims to cultivate research for the burgeoning field of menstrual studies. Her post in the working group’s blog is entitled “Menstruation and Religion: Women’s Meaning-Making and Agency in the Hindu Community in Trinidad,” which can be found here.
Virtual Discussion with Fellows from Reframing Gendered Violence Project
Join us Monday, April 5th for a talk moderated by Professor Lila Abu-Lughod with Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan, author of Radicalizing Her: Why Women Choose Violence.
Virtual Discussion with Fellows from Reframing Gendered Violence Project
On Monday, April 5th, the Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality (IRWGS) at Columbia will be hosting a virtual discussion of Radicalizing Her: Why Women Choose Violence with the author, Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan from CUNY. Dipali Mukhodpadhyay will also be present as a respondent. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Lila Abu-Lughod, co-director of the working group Reframing Gendered Violence. The virtual event will run from 4:15pm-5:45pm.
Register here: tinyurl.com/RadicalizingHerApril5
Barbara Penner participates in the London Festival of Architecture on “The Fireless Cooker”
From market stalls to the hammer, protest placards to festivals, the third edition of 30 Objects in 30 Days brings together a wonderful collection of individuals and objects as part of LFA 2022. We are asking 30 key figures in the industry to nominate an 'object' that they feel best represents this year’s festival theme of ‘act’ and ‘architecture’ and share a video explaining why. For Barbara's selection she has chosen the fireless cooker. Barbara Penner is Professor in Architectural Humanities at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.
Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i10wkTQ7dgk&ab_channel=LondonFestivalofArchitecture
Organizers: London Festival of Architecture
Working Group Affiliation: Insurgent Domesticities
Upcoming Webinar Series By Theory from the Margins
Professor Lila Abu-Lughod will be featured in a virtual project discussing her new book for the Religion and the Global Framing of Gender Violence working group.
Upcoming Webinar Series By Theory from the Margins
Join us Thursday, April 8th at 9:30am EST for a webinar series featuring Professor Lila Abu-Lughod, co-director of the working group Religion and the Global Framing of Gendered Violence, discussing her upcoming book. More details and zoom link to be announced later. The event will also be live-streamed.
Professor Lila Abu-Lughod is the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University where she teaches anthropology and gender studies. Her book is entitled Gender from the Margins / The Geopolitics of Gender Violence. Read more about Professor Abu-Lughod’s work here.