Call for Menstrual Health Project Staff Associate Applications
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Menstrual Health Project
Staff Associate
The Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) is hiring a Staff Associate with primary responsibility for supporting the Menstrual Health Project.
Project Description:
Countries around the world are developing legislative and policy frameworks on menstrual hygiene and health covering different aspects such as menstrual hygiene, de-taxing menstrual products, menstrual leave, or ensuring provision of menstrual products to specific population groups. The project seeks to review policy developments to assess how far-reaching and comprehensive they are, which populations they target, and whether policies translate into budgets and implementation measures to achieve their stated objectives. This review will be informed by human rights principles to assess whether processes are participatory, whether policies reach marginalized groups and individuals, and whether governments are accountable to their policy commitments.
Job Responsibilities:
Conduct research to prepare a global overview of policy developments; participate in research trips and conduct interviews online and in person; draft all minutes, reports, and publications pertaining to the project; draft project documentation for dissemination and outreach such as policy briefs and infographics. (60%)
Liaise with the Technical Advisory Group, staff at the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, partners in India, Kenya, Senegal and other countries, and other partners; design and convene the country workshops and Technical Advisory Group meetings for the project (10%)
Coordinate and plan different phases of the project (5%)
Draft IRB protocol for the ethical clearance of the project (5%)
Provide other research and programmatic support to ISHR as needed (20%)
Minimum Qualifications:
BA in international affairs, human rights, development, global studies or similar field
A minimum of two years of experience (an MA can substitute for professional experience)
Excellent drafting, communication, and organizational skills
Experience conducting interviews
Capacity to synthesize large amounts of information
Experience working / traveling in the Global South (in particular South Asia, East and Western Africa)
Preferred Qualifications:
Advanced degree in human rights, development, public policy or similar field
Prior experience in the field of menstrual health and/or human rights
Prior experience in conducting policy-related research and developing policy-briefs
Knowledge of languages other than English (in particular French)
To apply, please submit your CV; cover letter detailing relevant experience and interest in menstrual health, human rights and policy analysis; writing sample ideally focused on policy analysis (max. 20 pages); and list of two references to the job posting on Columbia University’s Recruitment of Academic Personnel System (RAPS). Application review begins on Oct. 1, 2019.
Call for Geographies of Injustice Internship Applications
Application review will begin on December 1, 2019.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Geographies of Injustice
Institute Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro
Summer 2020 Internship Program
The Geographies of Injustice working group seeks 2-3 interns from Columbia and Barnard College with advanced language skills in Portuguese to work with the team at the Institute Moreira Salles in the creation of a geographical history of the favelas.
Project Description:
Interns will work with a multidisciplinary team, consisting of different institutions (private, public and non-governmental organizations) to develop a methodology that involves interviews with residents or visitors of the above mentioned locations. The goal is for residents and visitors to relate individual and collective stories that tell narratives around cultural histories with a focus on music and identity. (For example, the project aims to gather interviews from an elderly composer of sertanejo music from Northeastern Brazil, a young funk musician, an evangelical woman pianist, and a recently arrived immigrant living in the favela who was a musician in his country. Other such projects will follow.)
After the interview stage, the project team will develop content proposals for a series of podcasts to be produced in the Moreira Salles Institute studios and made available on the institutions' networks.
From the point of view of the Moreira Salles Institute, the project is expected to be carried out by a team with interdisciplinary experience, especially intern trainees, in the key areas of the project, namely “Social Action” and “Radio Batuta.”
It is worth mentioning that this is a work in process, which allows possible redefinition of the project and new paths of exploration to emerge from the practice.
Qualifications:
Advanced language skills in speaking and reading Portuguese is a must.
No prior knowledge of geo-referencing is required but knowledge of digital mapping skills and college-level research experience are a plus.
Interest in, or prior experience with, the production and editing of textual and image content, and in developing methodologies concerning fieldwork, interviews and systematization of their data will be a plus. So, too, an interest in music, media, and radio, and knowledge of editing digital audio files.
To apply, please send a resume and a 1-2 page statement with information about relevant coursework, Portuguese-language experience, prior experience in areas related to the project, and personal interests in the project to Professors Anupama Rao (arao@barnard.edu) and Ana Paulina Lee (ana.lee@columbia.edu). Questions regarding internship specifics and scholarship opportunities can be sent to the project directors, Professors Rao and Lee, as well.
Application review will begin on December 1, 2019, followed by interviews with shortlisted candidates beginning in late January.
Frances Negrón-Muntaner Participates in 2019 Conference of Ford Fellows
The event, themed “Empowered Scholarship: Engaging with the World, Connecting with Each Other,” took place on October 3 and 4.
The CSSD Executive Committee member and former Unpayable Debt working group co-director Frances Negrón-Muntaner was part the opening plenary panel of the 2019 Conference of Ford Fellows. Her talk was entitled “Decolonial Joy: Theorizing from Public Scholarship.” The annual conference “is a unique national conference of a select group of high-achieving scholars committed to diversifying the professoriate and using diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students."
See the full conference program here.
“Valor y Cambio” Wins Borimix 2019 Award and Features in Medium and Nexos
Frances Negrón-Muntaner’s art and alternative currency project continues to make news.
Frances Negrón-Muntaner, CSSD Executive Committee member and former Unpayable Debt working group co-director, announced on Twitter that her “Valor y Cambio” (Value and Change) project won the Borimix 2019 Award “for its contribution and support to arts and culture.” The project recently wrapped up its run in East Harlem and is headed back to Puerto Rico.
“Valor y Cambio” was also featured in a Medium article, which delves into the socio-political context out of which the project was born, as well as the history of other alternative currencies.
Read yet another piece on “Valor y Cambio” on the Spanish-language Nexos.
Columbia Spectator Covers “Ushui” Film Screening
The screening was part of a two-day event put on by the Environmental Justice, Belief Systems, and Aesthetic Experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean working group.
On Thursday October 10 and Friday October 11, the Environmental Justice working group hosted an event showcasing Ushui, a documentary about women shamans from the indigenous Colombian culture the Wiwa. The event, Water, Sound, and Indigenous Film: Ushui, invited the director of the film, as well as film historians, critics, curators, and academics, for a Q&A after the film, and a workshop the following day.
The film’s director Rafael Mojica Gil grew up practicing Wiwa customs, as did another event participant, film historian José Gregorio Mojica Gil. The film is meant as an archive of sorts, created to preserve Wiwa culture for the future.
Read the thoughtful piece in the Spectator here, featuring many direct quotes from the director and event participants.
Saidiya Hartman Receives MacArthur “Genius Grant”
Former co-director of Engendering the Archive one of 26 fellows for 2019.
Last month, the MacArthur Foundation announced its 2019 MacArthur Fellows (the fellowship is known colloquially as a “genius grant”). Among the recipients is Saidiya Hartman, former co-director of the Engendering the Archive working group. Professor Hartman was also a speaker at the CSSD 10 year anniversary symposium What We CAN Do When There's Nothing to Be Done.
The MacArthur Fellowship is “a $625,000, no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential.” The MacArthur foundation calls Professor Hartman’s work “meticulous” and “inventive,” noting that she “has influenced an entire generation of scholars.”
Read their description of her work here.
Save the Date for Columbia Giving Day! October 23, 2019
This Columbia Giving Day, stand for scholars, artists, and activists working together across disciplines.
Masha Gessen, Marianne Hirsch, and Lyndsey Stonebridge at the CSSD Anniversary Symposium
This Columbia Giving Day, stand for scholars, artists, and activists working together across disciplines.
The Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD) relies on individual donations to power the impact of our interdisciplinary research. Wednesday, October 23 is Columbia Giving Day 2019, and you can contribute to two funds that support the work of CSSD:
Center for the Study of Social Difference fund - supports all of the faculty research, programming, public impact, and work on social justice issues at the Center, which houses the Women Creating Change initiative
Women Creating Change fund - specifically supports our projects and programs with a focus on contemporary global problems affecting women and on the roles women play in addressing these problems
Learn more and save the date HERE.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Jack Halberstam at the CSSD Anniversary Symposium
Participants in the Valor Y Cambio project of CSSD working group Unpayable Debt
CalArts MA Aesthetics and Politics Program Announces Saidiya Hartman as 2021 Theorist in Residence
The position includes private workshops and public lectures.
Earlier this year, the California Institute of the Arts announced their Theorist in Residence for 2021: Saidiya Hartman, former co-director Engendering the Archive. The initiative invites “theorists focusing on media, urban or global studies to spend up to two weeks at CalArts to teach workshops, faculty seminars and give a public lecture.” Previous Theorists in Residence include N. Katherine Hayles, Judith Butler, and Lauren Berlant. Saidiya Hartman is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Women's and Gender Studies at Columbia University.
Film and TV Rights Picked up for Karl Jacoby’s Book About Slave-Turned-Millionaire in Turn-of-the-Century America
The Strange Career of William Ellis first came out in 2016 and won the Ray Allen Billington Prize and the Phillis Wheatley Book Award.
Deadline reports that indie filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez has optioned the film and TV rights for The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire, the 2016 book by Karl Jacoby, current Executive Committee member at CSSD. Ellis was an African-American businessman who “passed” as Mexican to become an exceptionally wealthy Wall Street banker. Rodriguez, best known for his biographical documentaries on race, art, and politics, is quoted as saying:
“Karl Jacoby’s stranger-than-fiction historical biography unfolds the private life and social world of a bold, but enigmatic figure who flitted in and out of an astonishing array of his era’s most noteworthy events. His journey will resonate in today’s climate in which we are again rewriting the rules of race and identity.”
'Valor y Cambio’ Art Installation and Alternative Currency Project Featured in Multiple Publications and TV Interview
Frances Negrón-Muntaner’s project wrapped up its East Harlem run on September 30.
The “Valor y Cambio” (Value and Change) project grew out of Frances Negrón-Muntaner’s Unpayable Debt working group, surveying spaces historically and contemporarily affected by debt, from her native Puerto Rico, to Detroit, Greece, and more. Negrón-Muntaner is a filmmaker and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia and former Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.
The interactive installation, which will return to Puerto Rico after its recent stint in New York, allows participants to speak into an ATM that records their perspectives on what they value. It then dispenses an alternative currency, which was accepted at various local partner businesses during its time in New York. The currency (“the pesos of Puerto Rico”) is, in itself, also an art piece, featuring the stories of poets, athletes, doctors, activists, educators, and youth leaders.
Read more about “Valor y Cambio” in Repeating Islands and the Columbia Spectator. Watch a Spanish-language interview with Negrón-Muntaner on the Univison website.