Geographies of Injustice WG Organized and Participated in "Iberian Seascapes" Conference at the University of Lisbon: (May 23-4, 2024)
The Geographies of Injustice Working Group organized and participated in a two-day conference at the University of Lisbon (Portugal), titled “Iberian Seascapes: Culture, Performance, and Resistance in Asia, Africa, and the Americas” on May 23-4, 2024. This conference follows the tremendously successful “Iberian Soundscapes” Conference also organized by the working group in the fall of 2023.
Scholars from India, Portugal, Brazil, and the United States gathered for a two day conference to discuss themes of race, caste, law, sound, and cinema as it pertains to the "Luso-Hispanic Moment".
CSSD Co-Director Ana Paulina Lee in "Literature Around the World" 2022 in Paris
Geographies of Injustice Co-Director Ana Paulina Lee and Xiaolu Guo read poems they have written on the theme of dust, accompanied by the double-bassist Marc Marder. Together, they improvised a performance between words and music, live from Reid Hall, in Montparnasse.
To see more about the event see more here [External link Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination]
Anupama Rao Participates in Panel Discussion on Historian Sumit Guha’s book
The co-director of the Geographies of Injustice working group spoke about the book History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000.
Anupama Rao, co-director of the Geographies of Injustice working group, was a discussant for a recent virtual book talk event highlighting the historian Sumit Guha’s work History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000.
Anupama Rao will be moderating a discussion on the Dalit Panthers and Literary Insurgence
This talk is a part of the Understanding Systemic Racism: Art and Politics series hosted by the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University.
Anupama Rao, co-director of the Geographies of Injustice working group, will be moderating a discussion on The Dalit Panthers and Literary Insurgence as part of the “Understanding Systemic Racism: Art and Politics” series hosted by the Institute of Comparative Literature and Society. Featured guest speakers include Suraj Yengde (Harvard University) and Yogesh Maitreya (Panther’s Paw Publication).
To learn more about Professor Anupama Rao’s work at CSSD visit the Gender & the Global Slum and Reframing Gendered Violence working group pages.
CSSD Media Fellow Awarded Open City Fellowship by The Asian American Writers' Workshop (AAWW)
As an AAWW fellow Jessica Jacolbe will report on Asian diasporic and Muslim communities in New York City.
Geographies of Injustice Media Fellow, Jessica Jacolbe has been named a 2021 Open City Fellow by The Asian American Writers’ Workshop. During her nine month fellowship Jessica will be reporting on Asian diasporic and Muslim communities in New York City, specifically writing arts and culture stories and reporting on the Flushing and Woodside neighborhoods in Queens.
For a full list of AAWW 2021 Margins and Open City Fellows click here.
Geographies of Injustice Media Fellow Publishes Article for VICE
Jessica Jacolbe’s piece is titled, Rio’s Favela Museum Organizes Community and Memorializes Its People.
Jessica Jacolbe, Geographies of Injustice working group Media Fellow, penned the piece, Rio’s Favela Museum Organizes Community and Memorializes Its People” featured in VICE Magazine. Jacolbe writes about the work of memorialization done by Antonio Firmino and the Sankofa Museum in Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, as COVID-19 storms through Brazil.
To read the article, click here.
To learn more about the work of the Geographies of Injustice Working Group, read here.
Co-Director of Geographies of Injustice to Speak at Institute of Latin American Studies Online Event
Ana Paulina Lee is moderating “Liberating the Sacred: Afro-Brazilian Religions, Cultural Heritage, and the Law” on November 5th.
Professor Ana Paulina Lee, co-director of the Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City working group, will be moderating a conversation with Nilce Naira Nascimento and Sergio Suiama on November 5 from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM. Liberating the Sacred: Afro-Brazilian Religions, Cultural Heritage, and the Law is hosted by the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. Between 1889-1945, over 500 sacred objects were confiscated from Candomblé and Umbanda temples in Rio de Janeiro. For more than a century, the sacred objects were held at the building that once served as headquarters to the Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS), once the center for police administration, a prison, and a torture site, and now the headquarters for the Civil Police. In September 2020, after decades of struggle, the objects were transferred to the Museum of the Republic. This conversation revisits the history to liberate the sacred objects. Participants will discuss plans for the future of these sacred objects and address issues related to cultural belonging, law, appropriation, and heritage.
Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City Co-director Interviewed by MSNBC
Ana Paulina Lee discusses Brazil’s response to the coronavirus.
Ana Paulina Lee, Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City co-director, was recently interviewed by MSNBC, where she discussed Brazil’s response to the current coronavirus pandemic.
The full MSNBC segment can be viewed here.
Geographies of Injustice co-director pens piece in The Conversation.
Ana Paulina Lee writes about an upcoming Dread Scott documentary on the 1811 German Coast Uprising.
Ana Paulina Lee, co-director of the Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City working group, writes about a modern day reenactment of the 1811 German Coast uprising slave rebellion and the new Dread Scott documentary on this historical moment for the The Conversation. Her article has been republished in numerous forums including, the San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate, San Antonio Express-News (TX), The Telegraph (Alton, IL), The Raw Story, among others.
Ana Paulina Lee Participates in Workshop Discussing Restitution of Plundered Objects
The workshop was hosted by the Decolonial Collective on Migration of Objects and People at Brown University.
On February 7, 2020, Ana Paulina Lee, co-director of the Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City working group, delivered a presentation of her research, “Sorcery and Violence in the Archive,” in a workshop titled “Gendered Approaches to Restitution: Labor, Migration, Structural Amnesia and Trauma.” The workshop brought scholars together to discuss the restitution of plundered objects as part of “world repairing.”
Read about the workshop here.
Geographies of Injustice Fellows Featured in Rio On Watch
Fernando Ermiro and Antônio Carlos Firmino are both fellows of the CSSD Geographies of Injustice working group and partners in the Sankofa Museum.
Fernando Ermiro and Antônio Carlos Firmino, fellows of the CSSD working group Geographies of Injustice, are highlighted for the work they have done with the Sankofa Museum. Ermiro discusses his participation in the resident-led tours of Rocinha and suggests that they are essential to accurately depict the community’s long history and to support local development. He argues that community-led tours should “touch on certain points: the law is not a synonym for justice; income distribution what moves the local economy thinking globally and acting locally.”
For their whole account and the rest of the article, read here.
To learn more about the work of Geographies of Injustice, read here.
Join Geographies of Injustice Co-Director for a Book Talk
Anupama Rao is the editor of Memoirs of a Dalit Communist: The Many Worlds of R.B. More by Satyendra More
Anupama Rao, co-director of Geographies of Injustice and former co-director of CSSD working groups Gender & The Global Slum and Reframing Gendered Violence, will be featured in a discussion of the recent publication she edited, Memoirs of a Dalit Communist: The Many Worlds of R.B. More by Satyendra More, and will be joined by Elleni Zelleke and Sudipta Kaviraj.
To learn more about the book and to RSVP, click here.
To learn more about the Geographies of Injustice working group, read here.
CSSD Collaboration with Columbia Global Center in Istanbul 2018-2019
CSSD projects and affiliates were featured in the Center’s most recent Annual Report.
The Columbia Global Center in Istanbul’s 2018-2019 Annual Report features project and affiliates of the Center for the Study of Social Difference. The Reframing Gendered Violence working group held four workshops in 2018 as a part of their workshop series hosted by the Istanbul Global Center. These workshops aimed to open up a critical global conversation among scholars and practicioners in order to reframe the issue of violence against women as it is currently discussed in a wide range of fields, both academic and policy-oriented. This series included “Beyond Prevalence: The Next Genderation of Campus Sexual Assault” on February 9th, “Institutionaled Violence and Gender: Innocence-Disposability-Resilience” on March 9th, “Interrogating Culture-Based Explanantions for Violence Against Women” on March 23rd, and “Turkish Students Present on Reframing Gendered Violence” on June 7th.
On September 25th, Women Mobilizing Memory (WMM) fellow and speaker at CSSD’s 10th Anniversary Symposium, Ayşe Gül Altınay, CSSD Executive Committee member and WMM co-director, Jean Howard, and director of the Queer Theory working group, Jack Halberstam, gave a talk entitled “Bridging Academia and Activism Thorugh Gender Studes.” The talk presented a critical reflection of the possibilities of doing feminism and gender studies in contemporary Turkey, with specific examples from the experiences of Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence.
Former CSSD director and co-director of the WMM working group, Marianne Hirsch, delivered a talk entitled “Women Carrying Memory: Stateless Figures,” along with Women Mobilizing Memory co-editor Ayşe Gül Altınay and Aylin Vartanyan. This talk looked at two recent memorial projects by feminist diasporic artists Mirta Kupferminc and Wangechi Muthu, which explored the vicissitudes and vulnerabilities of exile and statelessness, and suggested that stateless memory can open up the possibility of imagining alternative relationships between contemporary subjects and citizenship, national belonging, and home, as well as alternate temporalities of becoming.
The annual report also features a photo from a WMM Memory Walk conducted in Turkey. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, joined WWM fellow, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, and Global Center Director and CSSD Women Creating Change Leadership Council member, Safwan Masri, for this insightful tour of Istanbul.
To view the entire 2018-2019 Annual Report from Columbia’s Global Center in Istanbul click here.
Jean Howard and Ana Paulina Lee to be Featured on Panel “A Celebration of Soft Power”
The discussion will revolve around American democracy, race, performance, and US-China relations.
CSSD Executive Committee member and former Women Mobilizing Memory co-director, Jean Howard, and co-director of the Geographies of Injustice working group, Ana Paulina Lee will be featured on the upcoming panel “A Celebration of Soft Power.” Fellow panelists will include David Henry Hwang and Denise Cruz and will address American democracy, race, performance, and US-China relations, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. The event will take place on December 3rd from 4 pm to 6 pm in Kent Hall and is free of charge.
To read more about the event, click here.
Marighella Film Screening Followed by Director Q&A
Ana Paulina Lee to discuss Brazil’s current political climate.
Join co-director of the CSSD working group Geographies of Injustice, Ana Paulina Lee, and the director of Marighella, Wagner Moura, in a discussion on censorship, race, and the current political climate in Brazil. The film is a “searing and energized portrait of one of Brazil’s most divisive historical figures, Afro-brazilian poet and politician Carlos Marighella,” and is currently banned in Brazil. Tickets are $15. The film screening will take place on Saturday, December 7th at 8:00 pm in the Teacher’s College Chapel.
To learn more about the film and ticket purchase, click here.
Ana Paulina Lee Designated Antonio Candido Prize Winner for Best Book in the Humanities
The Antonio Candido Prize is awarded annually by the Latin American Studies Association.
Ana Paulina Lee, co-director of CSSD working group Geographies of Injustice, was recognized by the Brazil Section at the Latin American Studies Association with the Antonio Candido Prize for Best Book in the Humanities for her recent book Mandarin Brazil: Race, Representation, and Memory.
To read more about the Latin American Studies Association’s Awards, click here.
For more information on Lee’s book, click here.
Anupama Rao Participates in the Columbia University Seminar on South Asia
The lecture, entitled “Marx in Maharashta? The Memoir of Dalit Communist,” took place on November 18.
This past week Geographies of Injustice working group co-director, Anupama Rao, delivered a lecture titled "Marx in Maharashta? The Memoir of Dalit Communist" as a part of the Columbia University Seminar on South Asia. Her talk focused on her soon to be published translation of the autobiography/biography of R.B. More (1903-1972), a Dalit trade unionist, labor organizer, and Ambedkarite.
Read more about her recent lecture here.
Call for Geographies of Injustice Internship Applications
Application review will begin on December 1, 2019.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Geographies of Injustice
Institute Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro
Summer 2020 Internship Program
The Geographies of Injustice working group seeks 2-3 interns from Columbia and Barnard College with advanced language skills in Portuguese to work with the team at the Institute Moreira Salles in the creation of a geographical history of the favelas.
Project Description:
Interns will work with a multidisciplinary team, consisting of different institutions (private, public and non-governmental organizations) to develop a methodology that involves interviews with residents or visitors of the above mentioned locations. The goal is for residents and visitors to relate individual and collective stories that tell narratives around cultural histories with a focus on music and identity. (For example, the project aims to gather interviews from an elderly composer of sertanejo music from Northeastern Brazil, a young funk musician, an evangelical woman pianist, and a recently arrived immigrant living in the favela who was a musician in his country. Other such projects will follow.)
After the interview stage, the project team will develop content proposals for a series of podcasts to be produced in the Moreira Salles Institute studios and made available on the institutions' networks.
From the point of view of the Moreira Salles Institute, the project is expected to be carried out by a team with interdisciplinary experience, especially intern trainees, in the key areas of the project, namely “Social Action” and “Radio Batuta.”
It is worth mentioning that this is a work in process, which allows possible redefinition of the project and new paths of exploration to emerge from the practice.
Qualifications:
Advanced language skills in speaking and reading Portuguese is a must.
No prior knowledge of geo-referencing is required but knowledge of digital mapping skills and college-level research experience are a plus.
Interest in, or prior experience with, the production and editing of textual and image content, and in developing methodologies concerning fieldwork, interviews and systematization of their data will be a plus. So, too, an interest in music, media, and radio, and knowledge of editing digital audio files.
To apply, please send a resume and a 1-2 page statement with information about relevant coursework, Portuguese-language experience, prior experience in areas related to the project, and personal interests in the project to Professors Anupama Rao (arao@barnard.edu) and Ana Paulina Lee (ana.lee@columbia.edu). Questions regarding internship specifics and scholarship opportunities can be sent to the project directors, Professors Rao and Lee, as well.
Application review will begin on December 1, 2019, followed by interviews with shortlisted candidates beginning in late January.
Anupama Rao Organizes Second Annual Ambedkar Lectures
The first event of the series, on ‘Race, Caste, and American Pragmatism’, is to take place on October 17.
The Institute of Comparative Literature and Society will host the Second Annual Ambedkar Lectures, the first event of which takes place on October 17. The Ambedkar Lectures are organized by Geographies of Injustice co-director Anupama Rao.
Read more about the event here.
Geographies of Injustice Working Group Co-directors Awarded Funding by the Social Science Research Council
Professors Ana Paulina Lee and Anupama Rao have been announced as inaugural grantees of New Interdisciplinary Projects in the Social Sciences.
Professors Ana Paulina Lee and Anupama Rao, co-directors of the Geographies of Injustice working group, have been announced as inaugural grantees of New Interdisciplinary Projects in the Social Sciences for their project “Reconstructing Memory in Dharavi, Mumbai and Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro.”
The full announcement can be found here.