Rebecca Traister featured in New York Times Sunday Review
Panelist from the fifth anniversary celebration of Women Creating Change at the Center for the Study of Social Difference publishes feature in advance of release of her book Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.
“Fury Is a Political Weapon,” an Opinion piece by Rebecca Traister, is featured on the front page of the September 30, 2018 print New York Times Sunday Review. The full article can be read here.
Rebecca Traister, whose new book Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger will be published by Simon & Schuster on October 2, 2018, was panelist at the 5th anniversary celebration of Women Creating Change at the Center for the Study of Social Difference last Thursday evening.
Statement released by participants and attendees of the CSSD anniversary symposium
At the close of What We CAN Do When There’s Nothing To Be Done on September 28, 2018, conference members released a statement and group photo.
September 28, 2018 at What We CAN Do When There’s Nothing To Be Done: Strategies For Change
#WhatWeCanDo
A Conference Statement
September 28, 2018
We – several hundred students, teachers, writers, artists, activists, scholars, community members, privileged and disempowered alike— gathered together today to think, reflect, and act on the theme of “What We Can Do When There’s Nothing To Be Done,” for the tenth-year anniversary symposium of the Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University.
We spent the day together critically thinking about what we can do to advance social justice through various forms of intellectual work, artistic creation, political action and modes of protest.
All the while, we have felt outraged at the political developments in this country, just outside these walls.
We protest the disrespect and disregard for women displayed by Republican men on the Senate Judiciary Committee and by the current administration more generally.
We strongly oppose the possible confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
We are horrified by the structures that promote a man accused of violently assaulting women and who supports policies that violate the rights of so many people. Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings raised many red flags about his suitability for the court, ranging from his incomplete financial disclosures to the extreme partisanship unbefitting a judge and the egregious lack of judicial temperament he displayed.
We are heartened that the confirmation vote has been delayed and we demand that the FBI investigation be unhurried, unbiased, and thorough.
We pledge to act to oppose his confirmation.
We are committed to justice for all.
#WhatWeCanDo
Five principles emerged from our conference discussions, and we pledge to carry these with us beyond the privileged bounds of the space we occupied on Friday. This is both a call to action and a reminder that action can be taken:
1. We CAN do something, even when there seems to be nothing to be done.
2. If capable, we can and should utilize our privilege and the spaces we occupy to facilitate resistance, even in the face of presumed hopelessness or pessimism (the two are not to be conflated).
3. We acknowledge the power of small gestures to lead to acts – to lead to movements.
4. We will “resist temptation to return things to normal.”
5. “To change the world we must also be changed.”
Premilla Nadasen elected next President of the NWSA
CSSD co-director of Social Justice After the Welfare State and Faculty Fellow of Geographies of Injustice, Premilla Nadasen, was elected next President of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA).
Premilla Nadasen, Faculty Fellow with Geographies of Injustice and a co-director of Social Justice After the Welfare State, was elected next President of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA).
As President of the NWSA Governing Council, Dr. Nadasen will take office in November 2018 and serve for two years. The NWSA Governing Council serves as the Board of Directors for the organization and meets twice annually: in June and November.
Established in 1977, the National Women's Studies Association has as one of its primary objectives promoting and supporting the production and dissemination of knowledge about women and gender through teaching, learning, research and service in academic and other settings.
Jennifer Hirsch Featured in Teen Vogue
Reframing Gendered Violence co-director Jennifer Hirsch featured in an article in Teen Vogue discussing study on sexual education and its impact on how some college students practice consent.
A study by Reframing Gendered Violence co-director Jennifer Hirsch exploring the difference between how many straight, cisgender students are taught to give and get consent through a college-mandated "Yes Means Yes" training course is featured in an article on Teen Vogue.
The study titled “Social Dimensions of Sexual Consent Among Cisgender Heterosexual College Students: Insights From Ethnographic Research” reveals a social gray area — one in which young people are having consensual sex, but don't necessarily practice it in the way they were taught.
Click here to read the article.
Click here to read the study by Hirsch and her co-authors.
LIVESTREAM: MENSTRUATION IS HAVING ITS MOMENT – HOW CAN SCHOLARS ENGAGE?
New CSSD Working Group, Menstrual Health & Gender Justice holds launch panel September 20, 2018 .
The first event from the new CSSD Working Group on Menstrual Health and Gender Justice brought together experts on menstrual health – established and emerging scholars as well as practitioners. While research on menstruation is not new, the current momentum creates new opportunities.
The event was facilitated by CSSD Menstrual Health & Gender Justice Working Group Director, Inga Winkler. Speakers included Nancy Reame of Columbia University Medical Center; Chris Bobel, Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston; Norma Swenson, Founder of Our Bodies, Ourselves; Trisha Maharaj, Graduate Student in Human Rights Studies at Columbia University; Sylvia Wong of the United Nations Population Fund.
To watch the livestream video of the event, click here.
For more information about the event, click here.
Menstrual Health and Gender Justice Working Group Launches with Expert Panel
The Center for the Study of Social Difference and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights sponsored the launch of a new CSSD working group: Menstrual Health and Gender Justice.
On September 20, 2018, the Center for the Study Social Difference and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights sponsored the launch of a new CSSD working group: Menstrual Health and Gender Justice.
Inga Winkler, the director of the new working group, led five panelists and experts in the field in discussing the methods, opportunities, and risks involved in generating sustainable, evidence-based outcomes and in challenging common misconceptions of menstruation.
Panelists provided insights into how the working group can address and engage with the recent surge in public interest surrounding menstruation in their research.
Click here to read more.
Rachel Adams Reviews Three New Memoirs
Rachel Adams, co-director of the Precision Medicine working group, has reviewed three memoirs on illness and recovery.
Rachel Adams, co-director of the Precision Medicine working group and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia, has reviewed three new memoirs on illness and recovery in an article entitled, “Who is Sick and Who is Well.” It appeared in the publication Public Books and was commissioned by Nicholas Dames.
The full article can be read here.