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Erotohistoriography
Elizabeth Freeman
Elizabeth Freeman is associate professor of English at the University of California, Davis. She specializes in American literature and gender/sexuality/queer studies, and her articles have appeared in numerous scholarly journals. Her first book was The Wedding Complex: Forms of Belonging in Modern American Culture, and she is the editor of Queer Temporalities, a special double […]
Read MoreQuiet Revolutions: Postcolonial Women’s Writings and Structures of Solidarity
Alison Donnell
This talk offers a new reading of postcolonial women’s writings. The conventional model since the 1980s has been to emphasize issues of silence and invisibility, the desire for voice and narrative space, and self-representation as a form of empowerment and transformation. What is often eclipsed as a result is a valuable political ethic based on […]
Read MoreWhite Rights: What Apartheid South Africa Learned from the United States
Elizabeth Esch
Though widely regarded as the most racist regime on earth, the apartheid government in South Africa learned from policies and practices long extant in the United States. Before apartheid was institutionalized, South African social scientists, educators and politicians were among the most astute observers of racial segregation and white supremacy in the U.S. In this […]
Read MoreInternational Human Rights
Yvette Christiansë, Helen Lieberman, Virginia Magwaza-Setshedi and Jody Williams
This year’s Rennert Forum celebrates the life and work of Helen Suzman, the iconic South African leader who devoted her life to the fight against apartheid. The opening event, which coincides with the opening of an exhibition entitled “Helen Suzman: Fighter for Human Rights,” in the Diana Center, will feature world-renowned human rights activists Helen […]
Read MoreHelen Suzman: Fighter for Human Rights
Helen Suzman was a member of the South African Parliament for 36 years, from 1953-1989. She was the sole opposition voice condemning apartheid during the 13-year period (1961-1974) when she was the governing body’s only member of the Progressive Party. The exhibition explores nearly four decades of Suzman’s life and vision through photographs, personal letters, […]
Read MoreGrace Paley: Speaking Truth to Power
Yvette Christiansë, Ynestra King, Nancy Kricorian, Amy Swerdlow, and a member of the Center for Immigrant Families Collective
On Grace Paley’s birthday, we present a conversation exploring how imagination, truthtelling, and courageous action flow out of Paley’s life and work. A prolific writer, Paley’s fiction highlights the everyday struggles of women, what she calls “a history of everyday life.” In addition to her writing, Paley was also a committed activist, passionate about numerous […]
Read MoreIndigenous Women and Zapatismo: New Horizons of Visibility
Márgara Millán
The presence of women in the ranks of contemporary Zapatismo is a feature that has become visible in various ways, and which the insurgent movement has had to integrate. Sub-commander Marcos is not making light of the issue when he states that women belong in Zapatismo not because it is a feminist movement, but because […]
Read MoreCitizenship, Labor and the Biopolitics of the Bioeconomy: Recruiting Female Tissue Donors for Stem Cell Research
Catherine Waldby
Catherine Waldby is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at The University of Sydney, Australia. In this presentation, Professor Waldby will explore the emerging tensions between women’s voluntary (public good) donation of reproductive tissues for stem cell research and the increasing resort to transactional forms of tissue procurement, for example […]
Read MoreShould Religious Ethics Matter to Feminist Politics?
Saba Mahmood
Established in 2004 in honor of Barnard alumna Helen Pond McIntyre ’48, the McIntyre lectureship highlights the work of scholars who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of Women’s Studies. In past years, the lecture series has welcomed numerous feminist icons, including legal scholar Patricia Williams; human rights advocate Dorothy Q. Thomas; feminist science […]
Read MoreA Lab of One’s Own: A Place to Measure the Broken Symmetries of This Particular Elegant Universe
Melissa Franklin
This year’s Roslyn Silver ’27 Science Lecture will be presented by Melissa Franklin, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University. An experimental particle physicist who studies hadron collisions produced by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, she works in a collaboration of over 600 international physicists who discovered the top quark, the most massive of known […]
Read MoreThe Place of Contemporary Art
Alexander Alberro
In this lecture, Alexander Alberro, Virginia Bloedel Wright Associate Professor of Art History at Barnard College, explores forms of art and spectatorship that have emerged in the past two decades and are referred to as “contemporary.” The new modes are varied, covering a span from digital productions and sculptural installations that overwhelm cognition and produce […]
Read MoreLos Demonios Del Edén: Gender, Violence and Activism in Mexico
Lydia Cacho
With her 2005 book Los Demonios del Edén (Demons of Eden), author and human rights activist Lydia Cacho revealed the existence of organized sexual abuse of minors in Mexico. Following the publication of her book, she was subject to police harassment and became a symbol of a growing movement for greater freedom of the press. […]
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