Exceptional Conversations about Sexuality
CatalystCon is a three-day conference founded by Dee Dennis with workshops and panels that foster dialogue surrounding all aspects of sexuality and sex-positivity. Its mission is to “spark communication in sexuality, acceptance & activism”, with the belief that knowledge comes first and foremost before activism. Participants, both speakers and attendees, include “sex educators, sexologists, sex workers, writers, activists, […]
To Predestine and Condition – On Dorothy Roberts’ Fatal Invention
“The highly publicized lawsuit was intensified by the clinic’s failure to deliver a white baby…” Dorothy Roberts stood before a room full of people, showing a picture of what seemed to be a happy interracial family portrait. But it wasn’t a happy family picture, or even a success story. The picture staring down at that night’s crowd […]
Staking Our Claim: Writing Trans* Characters for the 21st Century
Before I attended Staking Our Claim: Trans Women’s Literature in the 21st Century, I was unsure of what to expect. The literature I’ve encountered that addresses trans*issues has been rare, and has almost always focused on the protagonist’s transition, as if the experience of being trans* starts soon before hormone therapy and reaches its conclusion at the end […]
Student & Campus Activism: Change Through Collaboration
Student activism has a rich history and legacy. From the protests against American involvement in the Vietnam War across U.S. college campuses to the more recent Chilean protests against the country’s education system, student mobilization has proven critical to the ever-changing landscape of social justice. Scholars and activists from around the country touched on this very subject […]
Knowledge, Activism and the Online Community
After recently attending the BCRW lecture, “Digital Community Formation,” I was struck by a connection between this talk and one held by BCRW last year, “Using Knowledge, Advancing Activism.” As a Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studiesmajor, and someone about to graduate and in the midst of figuring out how to turn this academic perspective into […]
What does Shange think?
Ntozake Shange on Stage and Screen video is now available on the BCRW website. On Wednesday, November 7th I had the pleasure of attending “Ntozake Shange on Stage & Screen” sponsored by Africana Studies at Barnard. The event began with a screening of Tyler Perry’s film adaptation of Shange’s choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow […]
SPEAK UP! Establishing Online Voice through Blogging
I see the blogging as major asset in my arsenal as a young activist. As an accessible, equalizing platform, the blogosphere gives voice to those underrepresented in the mainstream media. With easy options for sharing and commenting, a blog can create online community, highlight critical perspectives, and serve as an opportunity for activists and feminists to […]
Ntozake Shange Speaks Nov 7 at Barnard
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Africana Studies at Barnard, distinguished alumna Ntozake Shange ’70 returns to Barnard next week to kick off a year of programming in her honor. Ms. Shange is a Tony award winning author, whose work includes the masterpiece choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf. On Wednesday November 7, […]
Trans Zines: Highlights from the Barnard Library
Next week, BCRW is teaming up with the Barnard Library and Topside Press for an evening of short fiction and conversation. Staking Our Claim: Trans Women’s Literature in the 21st Century will feature writers Imogen Binnie, Ryka Aoki, Donna Ostrowsky, and Red Durkin, with moderator Tim Trace Peterson. The event is free and open to the public. Topside Press will also […]
Gender, Justice, and Neoliberal Transformations
We understand neoliberalism as an economic, political, and cultural shift that has produced a global activist response. As a set of macroeconomic policies, neoliberalism prioritizes a free-market model of growth that rests on deregulation, free trade, privatization, and retrenchment of state-provided social services … They have intensified the struggles for daily survival in which the […]
Dana Goldstein, Renina Jarmon & Courtney Martin on Sites of Digital Community
In preparation for tomorrow’s Digital Community Roundtable, a few of our panelists share their favorite sites of digital community below. Dana (@DanaGoldstein): My favorite digital community is Twitter. I know that is broad, but when I think of digital community, that’s what I think of. Of the various publications I write for, I think Slatedoes the best job of […]
Around Town: Upcoming Events this Friday, October 5th
In addition to BCRW’s Fall events, there are a number of exciting symposiums coming up that intersect strongly with BCRW’s interest areas, and some that include chances to see BCRW staff in action. Check out a few of these great events happening on Friday below, and let us know if you’re interested in blogging about any […]
Paternity Testing and Its Implications
How many of us have ever watched an episode of daytime talk show Maury where host Maury Povich brings on two men and a woman who has sexually transgressed, and conducts DNA tests to determine which man is “the real father” of her baby? How many of us have watched a young man celebrate on camera his newfound […]
Racial Inequality in Schools: Review of the Premiere of “40 Years Later: Now Can We Talk?”
Last Thursday, September 13, Barnard College hosted the premiere of 40 Years Later: Now Can We Talk?, a film directed by Markie Hancock and produced by Lee Anne Bell, the Director of Education as Barnard College. Both of these women, joined by Fern Khan, Monica Miller, and Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz discussed the film and its implications. 40 Years […]
Upcoming Event: Digital Community Formation
BCRW is excited to kick off our Digital Impact Series on Tuesday October 9th, with the Digital Community Formation Roundtable. We’re bringing together several academics, bloggers, and journalists – including Jon Beller, Brittney Cooper, Gail Drakes, Dana Goldstein, Renina Jarmon, and Courtney Martin – to talk about what they think about digital community, how they build […]
Environmental Justice for the Bronx
This post is part of a series of reflections on the 37th annual Scholar & Feminist conference, held March 3rd, 2012 at Barnard College. The above video shows the Environmental Justice workshop Pam is responding to, featuring Elizabeth Yeampierre, Tanya Fields and Rachel Sapery James discussing their work in the EJ movement. As a staff member working at the Barnard Center […]
The Art Behind the Nuts and Bolts
In May 2012, Barnard alumna Jessica Chornesky and her co-worker Ivo led 10 Barnard students in a BCRW sponsored intensive one week workshop on creating a video for a non-profit. Here, India Choquette, a workshop participant, reflects on the process and her take-aways. Let us know your thoughts on creating video for social change in the comments! […]
You Don’t Need to Know My Name: Sydnie Mosley on Unwanted Flirting
Yesterday, BCRW Alumna Fellow Sydnie Mosley ’07 wrote on her blog about how her work on The Window Sex Project has changed the way she interprets unwanted sexualized interactions: This is what the looks and the comments on the street do. This is what the large, ambiguous category of interaction we’ve labeled harassmentdoes. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It prompts […]
New Zines from the Women of Color Zine Symposium
The Barnard zine library once again has some awesome new additions! This time, librarian Jenna Freedman attended the Women of Color Zine Symposiumand came home with a variety of awesome finds, including: A crafty zine by a pregnant Korean-American librarian A discussion of dieting, sex, dating, fashion, hair, sluttiness and the sacred whore by a graduate student and mother A look at student […]
The Democratic Promise of Academia?
“…and then I realized I was wrong.” The speaker here is Assistant Professor of Political Science Michelle Smith, delivering a presentation on her past work to a roomful of Alain Locke scholars, American history professors, experts on the Harlem Renaissance, political theorists, and sundry undergraduates (myself among them) – and she’s just admitted she was wrong. I exchange […]
A Time for Radical Thinking: Discussing the 5th World Conference on Women
“Don’t call it a women’s conference,” Dr. Anele Heiges remembers Gertrude Mongellainsisting, in the lead up to what would come to be know as the 1st World Conference on Women. “Everyone should be in on it.” That year, 1975, was the UN International Women’s Year, and the Mexico City based conference focused on women’s contributions to development […]
Reflections on Vulnerability and Disability
This post by Ynestra King is part of a series of reflections on the 37th annual Scholar & Feminist conference, held March 3rd, 2012 at Barnard College. This year’s theme was “Vulnerability: the Human and the Humanities.” What I was most struck by at this conference is the complexity of vulnerability from the perspective of disability, […]
“Predictable Failures” in the Trayvon Martin Story
Several of the panelists at Private Bodies, Public Texts: A Salon in Honor of Karla FC Holloway, which took place on March 21, 2012, the same night as the million hoodie march, spoke poignantly about the ways in which the themes of Holloway’s book apply in the case of Trayvon Martin‘s death. In particular, they address the painful […]