The central focus of George Sanchez and Maria Jose Contreras’ workshops (in October and November respectively) was the body: the body that “keeps the score” of its habits, desires, and accumulated traumas, whether or not that score ever makes its way into verbal expression or outward acknowledgement. The goal of these workshops was to explicitly offer that acknowledgement: to make the score visible, legible, and communal, rather than burying it in the rush of “going back to normal life” after a year of COVID lockdown, precarity, illness, and death. + Read More
Representing Covid through Boal’s Image-Theater
Images of “Covid:”
#1. A person lies on a bench with both hands resting on their stomach and eyes half-closed. Another person stands with one of their hands placed on the forehead of the person lying down. The person lying down does not see the person who has a hand on their forehead. At a certain distance, two people stand behind some chairs holding hands and looking in the direction of the person lying down.
Mapping Out
November 20, 2021 Group Workshop with Maria
We as a collective attempted to connect through body movement. Like molecules we bumped and diverged, spreading in all directions at different speeds. After a while we were asked to trace ourselves to the past. So we made body maps. Laid them out flat and traced the outline of our present selves while filling the bodies with loss, fears, memories, thoughts and even hope.
Music and the (re)making of territory: A commentary on the Silvio Luiz de Almeida and MC Carol Panel
What is the role of music in (re)definitions of space? What is the role of humor?
In the fourth event of the “Reconstructing History” series, CSSD Geographies of Injustice working group members joined singer and activist MC Carol and professor and attorney Silvio Luiz de Almeida for a conversation on the meanings of territory, experience, theory, and humor in musical production. The working group, led by Professors Ana Paulina Lee and Anupama Rao, recently launched a podcast, titled Music and Migration in Rio and Mumbai’s Favelas. It can be accessed via Rádio Batuta or Spotify.
Bombay and Indian Ocean Urbanisms Workshop: Themes, Logistical Challenges, and Opportunities
Workshop Themes and Goals
As a part of the Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City working group we hosted our Bombay and Indian Ocean Urbanisms workshop on Zoom with four sessions spread out over a week between 26 June and 3 July, 2020. Speakers and participants joined the workshop from the US, India, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Singapore, England, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. The full schedule, including presenter names and paper titles, can be found here. + Read More
Shirley Sun: “Should We Be Worried About Racialization of Precision Medicine?”
Dr. Shirley Sun, Associate Professor of Sociology with joint courtesy appointments at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine and the School of Biological Sciences at NTU gave a presentation on December 4, 2019 hosted by the Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture working group on the racialization of precision medicine. + Read More
Disrupting Money: Puerto Rican Community Currency Project Makes Its Way to New York for the 2019 Loisaida Festival
Following a successful launch earlier this year, Puerto Rican artists will begin circulating Puerto Rican ‘pesos’ at the Lower Manhattan Festival ahead of one-month residency in the city.
RGFGV Conference Report on “Global Governance of the Intimate”
The project on Religion and the Global Reframing of Gender Violence (RGFGV) convened a major international workshop on September 7-8, 2018. Global Governance of the Intimate was the second in a series of international workshops that opened with workshop in Amman a year earlier, hosted at the Columbia Global Center | Middle East, Amman. A group of twenty-five scholars, journalists, lawyers and activists met for two intensive days of collaborative research sharing and brainstorming at Columbia University in New York City.
Reframing Transgender Violence: Notes from a Two-Day Workshop
On January 24-25, 2019, the Center for the Study of Social Difference presented its final scheduled public workshop in the first iteration of its Reframing Gendered Violence working group. Reframing Transgender Violence was organized by Nash Professor of Law Kendall Thomas and featured scholars, activists, attorneys, and graduate students working across issues of transgender violence and justice.
Reframing Gendered Violence presented “Gender and the Technologies of State Violence” in November
On November 16, 2017, the CSSD working group Reframing Gendered Violence presented “Gender and the Technologies of State Violence: Innocence-Disposability-Resilience” in the Case Lounge of Jerome Greene Hall at Columbia Law School, along with the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.
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KEYWORDS PANEL DISCUSSION: “Justice” defined in legal, institutional, and environmental terms
On March 23rd, CSSD presented its 2017 Keywords Roundtable Discussion featuring panelists from various departmental homes who discussed definitions of the word “justice.” + Read More
Jackie Leach Scully Discusses Precision Medicine, Embodiment, Self & Disability
On March 9, 2017, Dr. Jackie Leach Scully, Professor and Executive Director of PEALS (Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences) Research Center at Newcastle University in Newcastle, UK, led a thought-provoking and insightful seminar and discussion on “Precision Medicine, Embodiment, Self & Disability” as part of CSSD’s project on Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics and Culture. + Read More
PANEL DISCUSSION: Photographers and Journalists Document Gendered Refugee Experience
“In recent days, we’ve seen the supposed prevalence of violence against women in Muslim countries used to justify travel bans and immigration prohibitions,” remarked Jean Howard, George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities, as she introduced Refugees and Gender Violence: Media and the Arts, the latest event in a two-year series on Reframing Gendered Violence, co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Social Difference, and the Dean of the Humanities. + Read More
PANEL DISCUSSION: Gender Roles, Violence and the Refugee Experience in Mexico, the United States, and the European Union
In February, CSSD’s Reframing Gendered Violence working group presented a panel discussion on “Refugees and Gender Violence: Vulnerability and Resistance” that addressed the current conditions of forced migration in various parts of the world and the formations around gender roles and gendered violence it has created. + Read More
DISCUSSION: Refugees and Gender Violence: Media and the Arts on Thursday, March 30
CSSD presents “Refugees and Gender Violence: Media and the Arts,” Thursday, March 30th, 2017, from 4:10 – 6 p.m. in Butler Library 523. Presenters include Bikem Ekberzade, Photojournalist, Turkey, on “The Refugee Project: Anatomizing Gendered Violence,” Susan Meiselas, Photographer, Magnum Photos, on “A Room of Their Own,” and Sarah Stillman, Columbia School of Journalism, The New Yorker, on the “Global Migration Project.” + Read More
DISCUSSION: Keyword: Justice–Interdisciplinary Conversation on Thursday, March 23!
On Thursday, March 23, 2017 from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m., CSSD and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Council will co-host a Keywords: Interdisciplinary Roundtable Conversation on the keyword “Justice” in Butler Library 203, Columbia University. + Read More
Jackie Leach Scully Speaks on Precision Medicine, Ethics, Politics, and Culture on March 9
On March 9th, the CSSD project Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics and Culture will host Jackie Leach Scully for a lecture at Columbia. Leach Scully is Professor of Social Ethics and Bioethics, and Executive Director, Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre, Newcastle University, UK. + Read More
Jacqueline L. Chin Discusses “Precision Medicine, Privacy, and Family Relations” on February 9
On February 9, the CSSD working group Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture will host a discussion by Jacqueline L. Chin, Associate Professor, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, on the topic of “Precision Medicine, Privacy, and Family Relations.” + Read More
CONFERENCE: “China and Africa at a Crossroads: Revisiting the Legacy of Bandung Humanisms”
The CSSD working group Bandung Humanisms hosted the conference “China and Africa at a Crossroads: Revisiting the Legacy of Bandung Humanisms.” + Read More
Refugees and Gender Violence: Vulnerability and Resistance
On Thursday, February 9, CSSD presents a panel discussion on “Refugees and Gender Violence: Vulnerability and Resistance” from 4:10 to 6 p.m. in 523 Butler Library. This is the third panel discussion in a two-year series called Reframing Gendered Violence. + Read More
Ruha Benjamin on “Can the Subaltern Genome Code? Reimagining Innovation and Equity in the Era of Precision Medicine”
In November, Ruha Benjamin, Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, visited CSSD’s Project on Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture to argue for a re-imagining of innovation and equity in the era of precision medicine. + Read More
DISCUSSION: Framing Religion and Gender Violence—Beyond the Muslim Question
“Why and when is religion invoked in global responses to gendered violence? What roles are attributed to religion? What categories of the religious become seen as credible in anti-violence work?” + Read More
James Tabery Traces History of The Human Genome Project with CSSD’s Precision Medicine Working Group
On September 15, the Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture working group kicked off its first semester with a talk by James Tabery, Professor of Philosophy and Medicine at the University of Utah. + Read More
CSSD Co-sponsors Dissent Issue Launch Concerning the Feminist Movement’s Response to Trump Presidency
Dissent magazine’s editors and contributors are gathering Tuesday, November 22, 6:30 p.m. at The New School for an issue launch focused on the challenges feminists will face under a Trump presidency, and how feminist movements can fight back. + Read More
China and Africa at a Crossroads: Revisiting the Legacy of Bandung Humanisms
CSSD’s Bandung Humanisms working group presents a panel discussion on “China and Africa at a Crossroads: Revisiting the Legacy of Bandung Humanisms” on October 24, 2016, from 1-5:30 p.m. at the Heyman Center Common Room, Columbia University.
Alice Kessler-Harris Receives American Historical Association Award
Alice Kessler-Harris, R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History Emerita of American History at Columbia University and director of the CSSD project on “Social Justice After the Welfare State,” recently received an American Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction to senior historians for lifetime achievement.
Reframing Gendered Violence Group Holds “Is Gender Violence Governable? A Panel on International Feminist Regulation” on October 13th
On Thursday, October 13th, CSSD presents “Is Gender Violence Governable?: A Panel on International Feminist Regulation” at 4:15 p.m. in 203 Butler Library. + Read More
Precision Medicine Working Group Presents Aditya Bharadwaj, October 13, on “Cultivated Cures: Ethnographic Encounters with Contentious Stem Cell Regenerations in India”
CSSD’s Precision Medicine working group presents Aditya Bharadwaj, Research Professor, The Graduate Institute, Geneva, on “Cultivated Cures: Ethics, Politics, and Culture Ethnographic Encounters with Contentious Stem Cell Regenerations in India” on October 13th, 2016 from 5-7 p.m. at 754 Schermerhorn Extension. + Read More
“Concept Histories of the Urban” Workshop Concludes Gender and the Global Slum Project
“Concept Histories of the Urban” was the final meeting of the CSSD working group Gender and the Global Slum. The two-day workshop on September 16-17, 2016 was organized by by Anupama Rao and Casey Primel, and supported by CSSD, the Center for the Study of Science and Society, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the Heyman Center for the Humanities. + Read More
Keywords: Roundtable Discussion on “Choice”
In a liberal democracy like that of the United States, much pride is drawn from a putative freedom to make choices and the existence of many options to choose from. The reality is much more circumscribed, according to the panelists at the seventh annual Keywords Roundtable Discussion, which recently addressed the word “choice.”
Caribbean Digital II Surveys the Past and Future of Diasporic Communications
“The Caribbean is preparing the future,” said David Scott, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, as he introduced the second installment of “The Caribbean Digital,” a conference organized by CSSD’s Digital Black Atlantic working group. + Read More
“Difference of Caste” Workshop Convenes in New Delhi
The working group Gender and the Global Slum convened a closed workshop December 21-22, 2015 at the India International Centre in New Delhi on “The Difference of Caste.” + Read More
The Caribbean Digital II: Histories, Cartographies, Narratives
The Digital Black Atlantic Project‘s Caribbean Digital II conference convenes on December 4, 2015, with an afternoon of multiform panel presentations that will engage critically with the digital as praxis. + Read More
Keywords for Disability Studies Symposium Explores Key Questions for the Future
Disability scholars, artists, activists, and students gathered at the Keywords/Key Questions for Disability Studies Symposium this October to discuss the future of disability studies. + Read More
DISCUSSION: Shoshana Magnet on Feminism, Robots, and Roaches
In early 2015 Shoshana Magnet, associate professor at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa, came to speak to CSSD’s working group on Science and Social Difference about her feminist analysis of recent scientific inquiry into mixed societies of robots and insects. + Read More
ROUNDTABLE Keywords: Trans
On April 9th, the Center for the Study of Social Difference and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Council co-sponsored the roundtable discussion Keywords: TRANS. + Read More
LECTURE: Ron Suskind on “Narratives of Earned Hope: Or the Ways Adversity Can Build Compensatory Strengths”
Speaking on Wednesday, March 25th before an audience sponsored by the Center for the Study of Social Difference’s Future of Disability Studies workshop, Ron Suskind shared his story about pursuing a demanding career in investigative journalism while raising his autistic son Owen. + Read More
SYMPOSIUM: Caribbean Queer Visualities, April 2-3, 2015, Co-sponsored by Digital Black Atlantic Project
Caribbean Queer Visualities, co-sponsored by the CCSD working group the Digital Black Atlantic Project, reflects on and stimulates the production of creative and critical work that takes seriously the emergence of heterodox personal and public identities, identities that breach or subvert or evade the heteronormativities of colonial and postcolonial modes of being and self-expression. + Read More
Christian Lammert on “Welfare and Citizenship: The Pillars of Social Cohesion”
PUBLIC LECTURE:
Wednesday, November 5th, 5pm in 754 Schermerhorn Extension.
Christian Lammert, Professor for North American Politics at the John F. Kennedy Institute of the Free University of Berlin, will speak about the relationship between welfare and democracy—a question central to contemporary transatlantic debates surrounding capitalism, austerity, and inequality.
Women Leaders in Changing India
Anupama Rao, Women Creating Change project director for “Gender and the Global Slum” will participate in a discussion at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, featuring: Anjali Bansal ’97SIPA, Managing Director, Spencer Stuart, Sheela Patel, Director, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC), and Falguni Nayar P: ’12CC, Founder and CEO Nykaa.com. The panel will address the challenges and opportunities that face women in India’s formal and informal economies.
PUBLIC ROUNDTABLE: Women and Politics: A Turning Point?
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Roone Arledge Cinema, Columbia
In 2012, women comprised an impressive majority of the electorate. Currently, women hold a majority of twenty seats in the Senate. More women than ever before are raising young children while serving at the Capitol. Moreover, it is likely not only that the U.S. will see a woman presidential candidate in 2016, but also that Republicans will again nominate a woman for their vice presidential seat. “Women and Politics: A Turning Point?,” the 2014 public program co-hosted by Women Creating Change, a global initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Difference, and the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA), explored these and other issues in a roundtable discussion, featuring: Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer ‘97GS, NPR reporter Mara Liasson, and poet and Nation columnist Katha Pollitt ‘75SOA. Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies and Dean of Social Sciences Alondra Nelson moderated. + Read More
PUBLIC ROUNDTABLES: “Coming to Terms” with Gendered Memories of Genocide, War, and Political Repression,” Istanbul, Turkey
Public Roundtables with Turkish simultaneous translations
September 17, 2014, 1:00-7:00pm
DEPO Gallery, ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Roundtable topics and speakers:
Creating Alternative Archives, with Leyla Neyzi, Özlem Kaya, Susan Meiselas, Silvina der Meguerditchian, and Şemsa Özar
Art, Performance and Memory, with Andreas Huyssen, Alisa Solomon, Carol Becker, Diana Taylor, Maria José Contreras, and Ayşe Öncü
Gender, Memory, Activism, with Marita Sturken, Marianne Hirsch, Nükhet Sirman, Meltem Ahıska, Nancy Kricorian, and Yeşim Arat
KEYWORDS: Interdisciplinary Roundtable Conversations
Colleagues from the Humanities, the Social Sciences and the Socio-medical Sciences discuss “Vulnerability” as a keyword in the study of social difference.
Parenting, Narrative, and our Genetic Futures
Part of the Heyman Center’s Disciplines Series: Evaluation, Value, and Evidence, authors Alison Piepmeier, George Estreich, and Rachel Adams took up many of the questions raised in their November 2013 event on “Genes, Children, and Ethics” (featuring Michael Berube, Faye Ginsberg, and Rayna Rapp) in their discussion of “Parenting, Narrative, and Our Genetic Futures.” Elizabeth Emens chaired.