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 a profession, both panels resonated with me in how they addressed feminist knowledge (be it academic or otherwise) as a tool for activism. Moderated by Laura Flanders, “Using Knowledge, Advancing Activism” occurred last September, with Rinku Sen, Jamia Wilson, and Dean Spade. The panel addressed the questions of what counts as knowledge, whose knowledge matters, and how we can bridge academic knowledge with activism. The panelists each presented their organizations as possible examples of how to answer such questions. Sen’s work at the Applied Research Center, for example, exemplifies how racial justice knowledge can be mobilized through extensive research, community organizing, journalism (Colorlines.com) and networking. Wilson’s organization, The Women’s Media Center, takes a different approach by training girls and women to be “media savvy” in order to increase women’s visibility in the media. Finally, Spade discussed how the Sylvia Rivera Law Project helps support trans people of color and low-income trans people to access services and protection from violence where law fails to do so. All of these organizations combine some sort of academic and professional expertise (law, media, feminist studies) with equally valid knowledge produced from lived experiences to carefully strategize their fights against injustice.(more…) http://www.tb-credit.ru/znk.html http://www.tb-credit.ru/kredit-online.html