Afro-Nordic Feminisms WG Members Jasmine Kelekay, Lena Sawyer, and Nana Osei-Kofi Authored Chapters in the Newly Published Anthology Antirasismer och Antirasister
Jasmine Kelekay, Lena Sawyer, and Nana Osei-Kofi, authored chapters in the newly published anthology Antirasismer och Antirasister: Realistiska utopier, spänningar och vardagserfarenheter (Anti-Racisms and Anti-Racists. Realistic utopias, tensions and everyday experiences).
Read the press release in English, along with a short description here.
Lena Sawyer and Nana Osei-Kofi’s chapter is called Antirasistisk pedagogik: Motarkivering som social omsorg and Jasmine Kelekay’s is called Afrosvensk aktivism i kölvattnet av Black Lives Matter.
Afro-Nordic Feminisms Co-Directors Monica L. Miller and Nana Osei-Kofi co-authored the introduction to I Talk about It All the Time by Camara Lundestad Joof
Afro-Nordic Feminisms Co-Directors Monica L. Miller and Nana Osei-Kofi co-authored the introduction to I Talk about It All the Time by Camara Lundestad Joof, translated by Olivia Gunn, newly published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
Nana Osei-Kofi & Lena Sawyer co-authored, “Counter Archiving as a Decolonial Pedagogy of Collective Care,” published in Decolonising Social Work in Finland: Racialisation and Practices of Care
Nana Osei-Kofi and Lena Sawyer co-authored, along with Kris Clarke, “Counter Archiving as a Decolonial Pedagogy of Collective Care,” published in Decolonising Social Work in Finland: Racialisation and Practices of Care in March 2024.
Tess Skadegård Thorsen from Afro-Nordic Feminisms WG Co-Authored a Chapter in the New Book: (Farve)blinde vinkler – om racialisering, ulighed og andetgørelse i pædagogisk praksis
Tess Skadegård Thorsen also co-authored a chapter in Danish with Mira C. Skadegård in the new book (Farve)blinde vinkler – om racialisering, ulighed og andetgørelse i pædagogisk praksis. (Colour)Blind angles - on racialization, inequity, and othering in pedagogical practices. Their chapter is called Velmenende og almendannende – Diskrimination, racisme og den gode intention i gymnasieundervisning. (Well-meaning and educational - Discrimination, racism, and good intentions in high-school education.)
Jack Halberstam, Director of Past CSSD WG Queer Aquí & ISSG Faculty Director, Announced as 2024 Guggenheim Fellow
The Center for the Study of Social Difference wishes to congratulate Professor Jack Halberstam, the David Feinson Professor of the Humanities, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Director of the Institute the Study of Gender & Sexuality (ISSG), and Director of the past CSSD Working Group Queer Aquí, has been named a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow.
Read the full ISSG article here.
Mana Kia, Director of the New CSSD WG Alternative Modes of Being, Receives Award for Community Building & Engagement at Humanities Faculty Recognition Awards
The Center for the Study of Social Difference wishes to congratulate Mana Kia, Associate Professor in MESAAS and the director of the new Alternative Modes of Being project starting at CSSD this coming fall, for receiving an Award for Community Building and Engagement at the inaugural Humanities Faculty Recognition Awards.
The awards were presented on March 6, 2024, and honored faculty members in the following categories: Academic Excellence and Community Building and Engagement. Awardees were chosen by Acting Dean of Humanities Bruno Bosteels in consultation with the thirteen Humanities Chairs.
Afro-Nordic Feminisms WG Member Tess Skadegård Thorsen Joins Danish Delegation to Brussels in April
Tess Skadegård Thorsen joined a Danish delegation to Brussels in April 2024, where she met with policy-makers and legislators for discussions on gender, racism, and AI regulation. On 16 April, she also gave a guest lecture at Copenhagen University on the Acts, (arti)Facts, and Politics of Representation in Danish Film.
Extractive Media to Co-Sponsor Event with the South Asia Institute at Columbia
The Extractive Media Working Group at CSSD will be co-sponsoring Camera South Asia II alongside the South Asia Institute as they return this year to host a conversation that takes an expansive view of South Asia and its diasporic geographies. Our renowned roster artists, curators, and scholars probe the relation between aesthetics and politics, migration and memory, be it in post-1990s India or the 19th century oceanic voyages of the subcontinent’s “old diaspora.” Camera South Asia seeks to balance a focus on the contemporary with a long view of the past and to unsettle easy ascriptions of identity or authenticity, be it for individuals or for images.
CSSD Call for Applications for Two Business Office Positions: Communications Coordinator & Events Coordinator
Call for Applications
for ABD Graduate Students
The Center for the Study of Social Difference [CSSD] is looking for two ABD graduate students to join the CSSD Business Office for at least one academic year. We are searching for applicants interested in a cross-disciplinary approach to issues of social difference locally and globally. CSSD works across the University to support faculty Working Groups and social engagement projects that foster ethical and progressive social change. To learn more about CSSD, please visit our website.
Candidates can develop administration skills by working closely with the CSSD staff on Center operations and project management. They should expect to commit 10 hours per week to their roles at the Center.
ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR RESPONSIBILITIES:
Events Coordinator: Primary responsibilities include organizing Working Group requests for meetings, events, and travel
Communications Coordinator: Primary responsibilities include preparing CSSD communication for the newsletter, social media, blog, and annual report
ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR PAY:
The administrative coordinator roles offer an expected total pre-tax salary of $5K/semester (assuming 10 hours per week). It will be paid out hourly through the casual student administrative worker position, or ‘additional compensation’ if holding a Student Officer position simultaneously. The application deadline is May 3, 2024, with qualified candidates contacted or interviewed on a rolling basis. Apply early for the best opportunity for consideration. The start date is Monday, Sept. 2.
TO APPLY:
Applicants should email CSSDassistant@gmail.com the following information by May 3.
Please include CSSD Coordinator Position in the Subject line.
CV and cover letter
1-2 paragraphs describing your interest in working with CSSD, your administrative experience, and expected commitments for the September 2024 – June 2025 term
Name and contact information for three references
Seeds of Diaspora WG Director Lynnette Widder to Co-Sponsor April 10 Event, Titled "The Great Padma: The Epic River that Made the Bengal Delta"
Seeds of Diaspora WG Director Lynnette Widder will be co-sponsor an April 10 Event along with the Columbia Climate School, titled "The Great Padma: The Epic River that Made the Bengal Delta.”
Among others sponsoring and contributing to the event are CSSD fellows Anelise Chen and Ana Paulina Lee.
We hope you are able to participate in this phenomenal event.
Transforming Prison Education from the Inside: How a Columbia Initiative is Impacting Change
In spring of 2023 CSSD Graduate Administrative Fellow Tomoki Fukui interviewed Professor Jean Howard, Director of the Prison Education and Social Justice Working Group, and Patrick Anson, Graduate Assistant for the project. This piece is based on that interview and updated to include events undertaken this year.
Over the past three years the Prison Education and Social Justice Working Group at CSSD has worked to prepare students and faculty to teach inside prison and so to expand educational opportunities for incarcerated men and women.
Teaching inside prison presents unique challenges and opportunities. The group has worked to understand this site of work and to prepare classes that will engage and benefit students who attain their degrees by persistence and resilience.
Those who teach inside, the group discovered, will have their materials scrutinized by Department of Corrections officers before they are cleared to be taught; they themselves will undergo background checks and fingerprinting as a condition of work; and they will need to show unfailing politeness to the prison personnel who screen them when they arrive to teach and monitor the movements and actions of both students and faculty inside the facility.
Part of the Working Group’s task, therefore, was simply to understand how to successfully navigate the prison environment as an instructor at a very particular site of work. The group was aided in this task by speaking regularly with those at Columbia’s Center for Justice, like Claudia Rincón, who coordinate instruction inside affiliated prisons. The group also spoke with instructors who have taught inside and so learned from their experience, and it greatly benefited by engaging regularly with formerly incarcerated students who shared with the group what they found to be the most stimulating and helpful courses and teaching strategies that they had encountered while they were part of prison education programs.
Because, for example, courses often meet at night after the students have been busy with other activities and work assignments for much of the day, it’s important to incorporate active elements into a class plan: structured debates, movement exercises, small group activities that engage everyone. The group read a number of articles that theorize the prison classroom, the kinds of learning that flourishes in that environment, and the relationship of prison education initiatives to abolitionist politics.
Because faculty by and large can’t hold office hours and class time is limited to two hours a week, with some of that time often lost to late starts and interruptions by prison officials, it is incredibly helpful to have graduate students accompany faculty into prison classes. Course assistants and faculty can, for example, divide the work of holding one-on-one conferences at the side of the room and leading discussions with the rest of the class; or they can each facilitate a small group discussion or help prepare materials each week to supplement and enliven individual classes or to find essays that will help students with research papers.
Part of the group’s work has involved conversations with the Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Dean of the Graduate School to allow a certain number of faculty to count prison teaching as part of their regular course load and to provide modest stipends for graduate students to serve as course facilitators. We are grateful for the enthusiastic support of the Deans and hope these opportunities will be expanded as needed.
In academic year 2023-24, various members of the working group have taught prison courses. Professor Jennifer Middleton, supported by graduate student Nick Ide, taught “Earth: Origin, Evolution, Processes, Future” at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in the fall semester. Currently, Professor Alisa Solomon is teaching “Journalism and Public Life” at Sing Sing; Professor Samuel Kelton Roberts is teaching “Histories of Public Health in Communities of Color: The Built Environment in the 20 th Century United States” at Taconic Correctional Facility; and Professor Julie Crawford is teaching “Paradise Lost, Frankenstein, and Toni Morrison’s Paradise” at Taconic.
In addition, working group member Catherine Suffern, now working as Program Coordinator for the Justice-in-Education Initiative, has updated the comprehensive handbook for faculty and graduate students teaching in prison, and she and Patrick Anson organized a highly successful informational session for graduate students wishing to become course facilitators for prison classes on March 4.
The working group is in its final semester, but the intention is for its members to continue contributing to prison instruction going forward, as well as to helping students returning from prison to continue their education at Columbia or other institutions of higher education. Prison education is an established, if under-recognized, part of Columbia life. As a collectivity, the Prison Education and Social Justice working group is committed to seeing it thrive and evolve.
Edited by Professor Jean Howard, Patrick Anson, and Evan Berk.
Premilla Nadasen, Co-Director of the Transnational Black Feminisms WG, to Lead Two Events this April on Care
Premilla Nadasen, Co-Director of the Transnational Black Feminisms Working Group, the Barnard Center for Research on Women, and Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History at Barnard College, will be leading to events this April related to the theme of Care.
April 5-6, 2024: Care, Racial Capitalism, and Social Reproduction, led by Premilla Nadasen (BCRW C0-Director and Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History), brings together scholars, organizers, and artists to consider the intersections of social reproduction, racial capitalism, care, the state, and liberatory social change. Social reproduction signifies the labor necessary to maintain and reproduce human life and the labor force. It provides a lens to consider the social relations through which life is made, sustained, and might be transformed. Drawing on the long history of organizing and theorizing forged by feminist activists, low-wage women of color organizers, and scholars who have pushed us to expand our political analysis to include the dimensions of paid and unpaid domestic, emotional, and reproductive labor, this project considers the following questions: What is social reproduction and why does it matter? How does social reproduction broaden the scope of what counts as work and who counts as a worker? How does racial capitalism help us analyze and understand the value of social reproduction? How is the changing landscape of social reproduction reflective of political and economic shifts? And how is capitalism remaking itself in relation to social reproduction? Building on the work of feminist scholars and activists and the Black Radical Tradition, we also consider how social reproduction can and has been a site of organizing: What are the possibilities and limits of care for labor organizing, disability justice, and abolitionist organizing? How do we understand care in relation to social transformation and the state? Learn more about this event on the BCRW page here.
April 18, 2024: Care: the Highest Stage of Capitalism
Premilla Nadasen (Barnard College) will be joined by Dorothy Roberts (University of Pennsylvania) to discuss her new book, Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Haymarket Books, 2023), a powerful critique of capitalist care relations and the economic profit extracted from care. Care traces the rise of the care economy, from its roots in slavery, where there was no clear division between production and social reproduction, to the present care crisis, experienced acutely by more and more Americans. Today’s care economy, Nadasen shows, is an institutionalized, hierarchical system in which some people’s pain translates into other people’s profit. Yet this is also a story of resistance. Low-wage workers, immigrants, and women of color in movements from Wages for Housework and Welfare Rights to the Movement for Black Lives have continued to fight for and practice collective care. These groups help us envision how, given the challenges before us, we can create a caring world as part of a radical future. Learn more about this event on the BCRW page here.
Read Now! New Blog Post on the Prison Education & Social Justice Working Group: "Tranforming Prison Education from the Inside"
Click this link to read the latest blog post on the Prison Education and Social Justice Working Group, titled “Transforming Prison Education from the Inside: How a Columbia Initiative is Impacting Change.”
Lilian Chee from the Insurgent Domesticities WG Contributes to New Book, Architectures of Care (Routledge, 2023)
Insurgent Domesticities Working Group Member Lilian Chee has contributed a chapter, titled “Titled “Domesticity and the Architecture Film: Caring-With Architecture,” to the recently released book: Architectures of Care: From the Intimate to the Common (Routledge, 2023).
To read more about the book launch for this work, as well as its related text, Architecture from Public to Commons (Routledge, 2023), follow this link.
Read Now! New Blog Post, titled "Extraction, Waste, and Security," following Extractive Media's Event on March 4
Click here to access Extractive Media’s latest blog post follow their March 4 seminar with scholars Eleanor Johnson and Jonah Rowen.
Plate 1, “The Colonial House,” from Carl Bernhard Wadström, An Essay on Colonization (1794).
For information on the past event itself, you can access the original event page here.
2024 Call for Proposals Deadline Approaching: Friday, March 8, at 9 AM
This is a kind reminder that the Center for the Study of Social Difference’s deadline for accepting project proposal submissions is this Friday, March 8, at 9 AM.
We look forward to receiving your submissions.
A Range of Columbia Courses Being Taught by Participants in the Prison Education Working Group
Participants in the Prison Education and Social Justice Curricula Working Group have been teaching a range of Columbia courses in prisons.
Professor Jennifer Middleton, supported by Nick Ide, taught “Earth: Origin, Evolution, Processes, Future” at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in the fall semester.
Professor Alisa Solomon is teaching “Journalism & Public Life” at Sing Sing this spring.
Professor Samuel Kelton Roberts is teaching “Histories of Public Health in Communities of Color: The Built Environment in the 20th Century United States” at Taconic Correctional Facility spring.
And Professor Julie Crawford is teaching “Paradise Lost, Frankenstein, Paradise” at Taconic this spring.
Recovery WG Member Nadja Eisenberg-Guyot Publishes New Piece in City and Society
CSSD wishes to congratulate Recovery Working Group member Nadja Eisenberg Guyot who has recently published a piece in City & Society, the journal of the Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology.
The piece is titled "On how to live while being thrown away: Black people who use drugs and the politics of anti-disposability, North Philadelphia, circa 2007 to 2010."
The Prison Education Working Group Will Hold an Information Panel on March 4 for GSAS Students
The Prison Education and Social Justice Working Group will hold an informational panel on March 4th at The Heyman Center, introducing graduate students from across Arts & Sciences to the range of paid opportunities to teach in prison contexts and support justice-impacted students through Columbia’s Justice-in-Education (JIE) Initiative.
When: Monday, March 4, 2024
12:30-1:45 PM
Where: The Heyman Center, Second Floor Common Room
Visit the event page on our website for more information and to RSVP through the CU Center for Justice