On the University in/and Crisis
This essay reflects on and extends the critical conversations and discussions that occurred in the meetings and public events of the University in/and Crisis working group in fall 2025. It was originally published on the website of the Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD). The University in/and Crisis working group is a collaborative […]
Collective Reconnection: An Interview with Sophie Lewis
Sophie Lewis came to speak at the BCRW Feminist Freedom School in June. She brought an extraordinarily calm and humble demeanor as she entered the classroom. Her arrival was eagerly awaited by participants of the freedom school as many were familiar with her book, Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation (Verso Press, […]
Erika Dickerson-Despenza Named Ntozake Shange Social Justice Theater Residency’s Inaugural Playwright
BCRW, The Public Theater, and The Ntozake Shange Literary Trust partner to establish the first residency of its kind for distinguished women, femme, trans, or non-binary playwrights of the African Diaspora. The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director and Patrick Willingham, Executive Director), the Barnard Center for Research on Women (Premilla Nadasen, Claire Tow Professor […]
Sign Petition in Support of Ana Belique and Michelle Ricardo
We stand in solidarity with Ana Belique and Michelle Ricardo, we reject the censorship and fascist threats during the International Book Fair of Santo Domingo. We write to denounce the terrorist threats received by our colleague and collaborator, human rights activist Ana Belique, author of La Muñeca de Dieula. Barnard College’s Digital Humanities Center team […]
Ukraine Solidarity Event: (getting beyond) Doomsday Scrolling
Saturday, March 19, 7:00pm (EST) The Center at West Park 165 W 86th St, New York, NY 10024 AnomalousCo, an international transdisciplinary theatre collective based in New York City, is planning an urgent evening of solidarity with Ukraine and its refugees in New York. All proceeds from the benefit will go towards refugee assistance.Tickets can […]
The Bronx Fire: Financial Predation, City Neglect, Community Power
We continue to mourn with the survivors of a catastrophic fire in the Bronx that killed eight adults and nine children on January 9th, 2022. Barnard students and alums are among the people who lost relatives and neighbors in a disaster that rippled beyond New York and throughout communities living with the realities of precarious […]
Reading Palestine
We are grateful to our colleagues at the Barnard College Library for their work compiling the reading list, Palestinian Voices. This is an incredible resource to think with Palestinian writers about Palestinian history, memory, and survival. You will find novels, poetry, non-fiction, scholarly examinations, graphic novels, visual art, and zines, with writers spanning the generations […]
Defend Asian women, defend sex workers
Xiaojie Tan Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez Daoyou Feng Paul Andre Michels Soon C. Park Hyun-Jeong Park Grant Yong A. Yue Suncha Kim. We honor your life. We mourn your death. We grieve for the families and friends who have lost you to white supremacist violence. On Tuesday night, a white man killed eight people in […]
46th Annual Scholar and Feminist Conference: Art and Political Imagination
avFilm screening and conversation with filmmaker Cauleen Smith, lecture by art historian and curator Nicole R. Fleetwood, reading of June Jordan’s poetry by Asha Futterman, Conor Tomás Reed, Talia Shalev, Evie Shockley, and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, conversation with artists Scherezade Garcia and Nadir Souirgi, and a live music performance by Rhiannon Giddens Conference Description The […]
Update on spring 2020 programming
BCRW has been following the rapidly changing circumstances of the novel coronavirus outbreak with heavy hearts. In light of this public health crisis and in order to support efforts to minimize the spread of the virus, we have adjusted our public programming for the remainder of the spring semester. A number of events will be moved online, […]
News from our partners working on criminalization, plus our walking tour featured in Fodor’s
Update: We shared details on a workshop on prison abolition organized by Critical Resistance, but the event was already sold out. We apologize for the confusion. For details on upcoming gatherings to support incarcerated survivors and the movement to abolish prisons, visit the Survived and Punished events page. Radical Black Women of Harlem Walking Tour […]
Accompanying a friend to immigration court
I did my first accompaniment to immigration court one morning a couple of weeks ago as a volunteer with the New Sanctuary Coalition. I can’t say anything about the particular case, but I can say some things about the experience in some random order of observations: First, there’s the sense of scale. Our group–family members of […]
Genealogy of a Walking Tour
I first met Asha in Detroit in June 2018 at the Allied Media Conference. She attended a workshop about Lifting as They Climbed, a guidebook mapping the histories of Black women on Chicago’s South Side that I co-wrote with Essence McDowell. At the end of the workshop, we exchanged information after I learned that Asha […]
Announcing the Release of “Salacia,” a New Film by Tourmaline
For Immediate Release Tourmaline, artist, filmmaker, and Barnard Center for Research on Women Activist-in-Residence (2014-2018), is set to release two new 16mm short films: Salacia, a 6-minute looping film, and Mary of Ill Fame, a 25-minute short, starring Rowin Amone (previously DeJayé Joseph) as Mary Jones. Salacia and Mary of Ill Fame tell the stories of […]
Join the Barbara Smith Caring Circle
“Black feminist organizing built a political environment in which one could assert the importance of [Black women’s] work and not necessarily just lose everything—one’s sanity, one’s job, one’s status, one’s credibility. We were building a real life context in which Black women could, if not be free, at least be free to express what we […]
Fall 2018 Newsletter
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR For those of us in academic life, the year really begins in September. The new semester promises the arrival of new students and colleagues, and the turn of the season marks the promise of change and new possibilities. For BCRW, the new year also comes with a number of milestones. After […]
Announcing leadership transitions
Dear Friends, As the semester draws to a close, we are reflecting on another inspiring year of lectures, conferences and informal gatherings, publications, curricular initiatives, and scholar-activist collaborations that have pushed us to consider, respond to and engage in practices of critical intervention as well as community care. It’s been a momentous year of many […]
#FreeBresha, Free Them All
Bresha Meadows learned to fear her father and fear for her life. Throughout her young life, she endured years of his relentless physical and verbal abuse. On countless occasions he threatened to kill her and her family. Years of faded bruises, police reports, orders of protection, stories from neighbors, and allegations of sexual violence attest […]
What Next?: Resources to Respond to Trump’s Muslim Ban
On Wednesday, January 25, President Trump signed an Executive Order calling for the construction of a “impassable physical barrier” between the United States and Mexico. Throughout his campaign, Trump has stated that he would force the Mexican government pay for the wall, due to funds ostensibly lost from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). On Friday, […]
Gender Amplified hosts Dear Daughter Remix Contest
Gender Amplified, an org founded and run by Barnard and BCRW alum Ebonie Smith, is hosting a remix contest for the metal band Halestorm. Check it out and share! HALESTORM TEAMS UP WITH GENDER AMPLIFIED FOR “DEAR DAUGHTER REMIX CONTEST” September 12, 2016–Halestorm and Gender Amplified have partnered to present the “Dear Daughter Remix Contest,” where fans […]
On the DOJ’s Decision to Stop Using Private Prisons: Detention is Prison, Too. Let’s End It.
The Department of Justice announced today that it will stop outsourcing federal prisons to private prison companies due to extreme levels of physical, psychological, and sexual violence and death in these facilities. While this is the result of decades of abolitionist organizing, activists insist that we not let this news distract us: Private, for-profit prisons will continue to operate […]
Positivity Activism and Disability Justice: An Interview with Xian Horn
Can you describe some of the work that you do? Sure….In a nutshell: I run workshops on beauty and self-esteem, because I believe it is an essential human right to recognize our gifts and beauty. As a teacher, blogger, and speaker, I’m a storyteller whose stories ideally serve as a reflection of others and the […]
Police Out of Pride
Share this GIF: http://gph.is/28U3BeM Police out of Pride, out of our lives & out of business now! GIFS by Dean Spade + Hope Dector. Featuring art by Micah Bazant. Share this GIF: thttp://gph.is/28WOgLI More on queer liberation and resistance to police & prisons: Police + Prisons Don’t Keep Us Safe – We Keep Each Other Safe […]
What’s Next at BCRW, Plus Videos from our Events
A NOTE FROM OUR DIRECTOR: Thank you to everyone who joined BCRW at our lectures and conversations, our salon, and the annual Scholar and Feminist Conference on feminist sustainabilities. Your thoughtful questions, insights, and contributions generated critical dialogues and planted seeds for ongoing work here at BCRW and beyond. Though the semester has wound down, BCRW has […]
Great News: Paid Family News has come to NY!
BCRW is thrilled to share this news from A Better Balance, which helped lead the successful campaign for Paid Family Leave in New York: From A Better Balance: New York has passed the strongest paid family leave program in the nation, becoming the fourth state in the country to guarantee paid leave for workers welcoming […]
Queer Survival Economies: Invisible Lives, Targeted Bodies at #SF41
At the Scholar & Feminist Conference 41: Sustainabilities conference, I attended a panel entitled “Queer Survival Economies: Invisible Lives, Targeted Bodies.” BCRW Senior Activist Fellow Amber Hollibaugh was joined by Kate D’Adamo, Hamid Khan, and Ola Osaze to discuss issues impacting low-income and immigrant LGBTQ people and their experiences with ongoing changes in the neoliberal […]
Art, Community, and Activism: Beyond our Lines of Vision at #SF41
Sustaining Harlem: Art, Community Activism and Black Women’s Leadership from BCRW Videos on Vimeo. At this year’s Scholar and Feminist Conference, Sade Lythcott, Virginia Johnson, Pat Cruz, and Thelma Golden were invited to speak on the importance of art in considering the sustainability of Harlem as a community that centers Black cultural, political, and social innovation. As self-identified Black […]
#SF41 Keynote: “Making a Way Out of No Way” with Reina Gossett
Reina Gossett: Making a Way Out of No Way from BCRW Videos on Vimeo. “In a moment of heightened violence and increased visibility, which could also be called increased surveillance of our communities, how do we sustain ourselves? How do we make a way out of no way?” – Reina Gossett at the Scholar and Feminist 41: Sustainabilities […]
You are SO Brave: Disability Studies vs. Disability Justice at #SF41
“You are SO BRAVE” is a statement most disabled people are used to hearing. Able-bodied and able-minded people frequently infantilize our experiences and lives for their own inspiration fetishes. But you might be shocked to hear these words coming from the mouths of disabled people at a conference surrounding disability studies and scholarly work, what […]
Thank you for joining BCRW at S&F 41: Sustainabilities
All of us at BCRW continue to feel the waves of inspiration that you have left in your collective wake. Thank you for joining us and participating in challenging and generative discussions on intergenerational activism, queer survival economies, disability justice, fat activism and intersectionality, community safety, resourcing and resilience in queer and trans liberation movements, […]