Women Mobilizing Memory Featured on College Walk for Women's History Month
Women Mobilizing Memory, an anthology created by the working group by the same name and published by Columbia Press, has been featured on College Walk for Women's History month.
Women Mobilizing Memory Working Group Co-Director Interviewed by the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM)
The conversation with Marianne Hirsch appears in the Observing Memories Magazine.
Marianne Hirsch, former Director of the Center for the Study of Social Difference and co-director of past working groups including Women Mobilizing Memory, Reframing Gendered Violence, and Engendering the Archive was interviewed by the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM) in their Observing Memories Magazine. In the interview, Professor Hirsch spoke about the transmission of trauma across generations, the role of memory in social movements, and memory’s ability to strengthen democracy.
Engendering the Archive Fellow Has Won the British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize
Hazel Carby was awarded for her new book Imperial Intimacies: A Tale Of Two Islands.
Hazel Carby, Engendering the Archive and Women Mobilizing Memory working group fellow, has won the 2020 British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for for Global Cultural Understanding. This prize is awarded to works of non-fiction which contribute towards the cultural understanding of connections and divisions which shape identities across the world. Professor Carby’s book Imperial Intimacies: A Tale Of Two Islands (Verso Books, 2019) tells the story of her family in the context of British Empire.
To learn more about Professor Carby’s award click here.
Women Mobilizing Memory Collective Solidarity Statement on Artsakh
As scholars, artists and activists who are part of the transnational feminist Women Mobilizing Memory Collective sponsored by Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Social Difference, we have studied the memories of violent histories in the interests of promoting peace, social justice, and a democratic future across the globe.
Today, we call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Nagorno- Karabagh.
As scholars, artists and activists who are part of the transnational feminist Women Mobilizing Memory Collective sponsored by Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Social Difference, we have studied the memories of violent histories in the interests of promoting peace, social justice, and a democratic future across the globe.
Today, we call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Nagorno- Karabagh.
On September 27, 2020, with the backing of the Turkish government (1) and the mobilization of Syrian mercenaries (2), Azerbaijan launched a military assault on Nagorno-Karabagh, an Armenian enclave known to its residents as Artsakh. The cease fire agreement of October 10 was immediately violated.
The decades-long political conflict over the status of this enclave has erupted again as a violent and destabilizing force that is visiting death and destruction on the people of the region at a moment when the world is reeling from the effects of a deadly pandemic. Critical resources that should be used to respond to people’s medical and economic needs have been diverted into war. What is more, Armenians in Turkey and the Diaspora have been made targets of hate crimes and hate speech.
Wars do not result only in death, displacement, injury and destruction, but they create deep wounds that are transmitted across generations. This region already has a long and painful history of such wounds. As part of our research and collaboration, we have learned a great deal from many individuals and institutions in the Caucasus who have been working diligently, creatively and collaboratively to heal these wounds and to cultivate a peaceful future. We would like to join our voices with the courageous voices of peace from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey who are calling for immediate ceasefire, a permanent cessation of aggression and a peaceful resolution to this conflict that will afford the people of Nagorno-Karabagh the right to determine their own future. (3-7)
It is our hope that rather than spreading into an ever more violent proxy war, this conflict can be brought to an immediate end. We call on the international community, including the governments of the United States, Russia, and Turkey, to work to end the violence immediately and to bring about a lasting settlement. A lasting settlement needs to end all human rights violations in the region and to give voice to women and other marginalized groups through the implementation of the UN Resolution 1325. (8)
1. What lies behind Turkish support for Azerbaijan
2. Syrians Make Up Turkey’s Proxy Army in Nagorno-Karabakh
3. CaucasusTalks
4. To stand for peace, in spite of everything
5. HDP MP Garo Paylan: There are no winners in war and no losers in peace
6. #PEACENOW #BARIŞİSTİYORUZ
7. Armenian, Azeri Youth Speak Out For Peace
8. What’s Really Driving the Azerbaijan-Armenia Conflict
The Women Mobilizing Memory Collective at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Social Difference, comprised of over 40 scholars, artists and activists from the United States, Chile, Argentina, Turkey, Germany, and Austria.
Jean Howard Receives the 2020 Presidential Teaching Award
The former CSSD director and current CSSD Executive Committee member is honored for outstanding teaching by faculty.
Jean Howard, George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities and former director of the Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD) has been selected for the 2020 Presidential Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching by Faculty. The honor is reflective of a commitment to excellent and innovative teaching as recognized by the entire Columbia community.
To learn more about Jean Howard’s work at CSSD view her past working groups at the Center below:
Reframing Gendered Violence
Engendering the Archive
Women Mobilizing Memory
Former CSSD Director receives 2020 Faculty Mentoring Award
Marianne Hirsch is honored for exceptional commitment to faculty mentoring.
Marianne Hirsch, William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature and former Center for the Study of Social Difference Director, is a recipient of the 2020 Faculty Mentoring Award, which recognizes senior faculty who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to faculty mentoring.
To learn more about the award and other recipients click here.
To learn more about Marianne Hirsch’s work at CSSD check out her past working group pages below:
New Post from Women Mobilizing Memory Working Group Member for International Women's Day
Women Mobilizing Memory book editor, Ayşe Gül Altınay, penned the recent post Feminist Curious Steps Through History: Illumination in Dark Times for Social Difference Online.
Ayşe Gül Altınay, editor of the recently published Women Mobilizing Memory book and member of the Women Mobilizing Memory working group penned the recent Social Difference Online blog post Feminist Curious Steps Through History: Illumination in Dark Times . The post was submitted in honor of International Women’s Day, March 8, 2020.
Former CSSD Director Marianne Hirsch’s New Book Featured in Columbia News
School Photos in Liquid Time: Reframing Difference was co-authored by Leo Spitzer.
Former CSSD Director and project director of Women Mobilizing Memory, Marianne Hirsch, is interviewed about her new book, School Photos in Liquid Time: Reframing Difference, by Columbia News. She discusses the idea behind the book, her personal connection to the subject matter, the revealing nature of photographs, and her research on memory, amongst other things.
To read the whole interview, click here.
Women Mobilizing Memory Working Group Fellow Pens Article
Nancy Kricorian publishes report read at Women Mobilizing Memory book event.
Nancy Kricorian, Center for the Study of Social Differences (CSSD) working group Women Mobilizing Memory (WMM) fellow, published a piece on The Armenian Weekly, The Name of this Place, which was read at the WMM event, Reclaiming Collective Memories in Contemporary Turkey. Her piece discusses the historical context of the occupation of Dikranagerd and her experience touring the destroyed Sur District.
For the full article, 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.
Marianne Hirsch and Ayşe Gül Altınay Discuss Women Mobilizing Memory Book Launch
Marianne Hirsch and Ayşe Gül Altınay present Women Mobilizing Memory working group’s eponymous book, Women Mobilizing Memory: Stories of Feminist Co-Resistance at the 2019 Mnemonics Summer School.
Marianne Hirsch (professor of English, comparative literature, and gender studies at Columbia University) and Ayşe Gül Altınay (professor of cultural anthropology and director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence at Sabancı University) discussed the working group, Women Mobilizing Memory, eponymous book, Women Mobilizing Memory: Stories of Feminist Co-Resistance, at the 2019 Mnemonics Summer School Lecture Series, Memory and Activism. To see their full presentation, check out this video.
NYTimes article on the importance of the work of academics in Turkey
The work of CSSD fellow Ayse Gul Altinay, among others, is highlighted.
CSSD colleague Ayse Gül Altinay, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Center at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey, was sentenced to 25 months in prison earlier this year. The important work of Ayse Gul Altinay is highlighted in a piece in The New York Times this week. Full article here.
"The work of academics has been critical to the process, piecing together more complete histories to promote understanding and basic human rights. The ongoing repression will cost future generations knowledge that is vital not only to overcoming past trauma, but also to easing the perpetuation of conflict."
Susan Meiselas’s Photography Reviewed by The New York Review of books
Famed photographic works from former Engendering the Archive and Women Mobilizing Memory working group fellow are revisited.
A recent article in The New York Review of Books highlights the work of photographer Susan Meiselas. The piece specifically chronicles photographs from Nicaragua during the 1970’s. Meiselas is a former fellow of both the Engendering the Archive and Women Mobilizing Memory working groups.
To read the complete article click here.
Susan Meiselas wins 2019 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize
Former Engendering the Archive and Women Mobilizing Memory working group fellow has been awarded for her socially engaged photography.
Susan Meiselas, photographer and fellow of former CSSD working groups Engendering the Archive and Women Mobilizing Memory was awarded the 2019 Deutsche Borse photography prize. Susan’s work spans five decades and covers subjects from the scattered communities of the Kurdish diaspora to the women in her Carnival Strippers series. Her engagement with the people in her photos lends her work a celebrated sense of humanity.
For more read the full feature in The Guardian here.
Statement of Support for Ayse Gül Altinay from CSSD & WCC
Our colleague Ayse Gül Altinay, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Center at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey, was sentenced to 25 months in prison earlier this week.
Our colleague Ayse Gül Altinay, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Center at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey, was sentenced to 25 months in prison earlier this week. She is one of over 2200 Academics for Peace who three years ago signed a statement “We will not be a party to this crime” appealing for an end to violent state-sponsored persecution of Kurdish citizens of Turkey. The investigation in Istanbul has covered only the first 1200 signatories so far, but it might be extended to the second 1000 as well. In this, her fourth, judicial hearing, Altinay was charged with “willingly and knowingly supporting a terrorist organization as a non-member.” The court's charge and thus the sentencing have no merit.
Ayse Gül Altinay has been a Faculty Fellow of Columbia’s Center for the Study of Social Difference since 2013. She is a co-organizer of the Working Group on “Women Mobilizing Memory” and a co-editor of the forthcoming Women Mobilizing Memory volume (Columbia University Press, 2019). Last September, she was also an invited speaker at the Center’s tenth anniversary conference “What We Can Do When There’s Nothing To be Done.” Her collaborative project “Curious Steps”— a gender-memory walk through Istanbul – spurred other such memory walks in additional sites including Harlem. Ayse Gül Altinay’s contributions to the Center’s work have been immeasurable: her feminist commitment to nonviolent protest and to transformative activism; her sharp insights into the workings of power and militarism and her determination to fight them; her fierce hopefulness combined with personal kindness, warmth and radiance have been an inspiration to all of us fortunate to be working with her.
In the spirit of collaboration and solidarity that Ayse Gül Altinay represents, it is important to point out that she is not alone in this struggle. Hers is one of a large number of cases receiving 25-month sentences that cannot be commuted. These cases, hers included, are in the process of being appealed. Some shorter sentences have been commuted, and many other colleagues are awaiting court dates over the next months. This is the time to speak out forcefully on all of their behalf and on behalf of freedom of expression and academic freedom.
On May 21st, 2019, Ayse Gül Altinay made the following statement to the court:
Every individual, every family living in this geography has suffered from past wars, migrations and experiences of violence. In terms of the cycle of violence that trauma studies alerts us to, we live in a challenging, vulnerable geography.
Yet, what we make of these past experiences of pain is up to us...
Are we going to turn our pain into more violence, hate, pain and injustice, or into steps that multiply life, beauty, love, peace and justice?
This is the main question that shapes my work and my life.
I firmly believe that we all have new steps we can take towards healing the traumas that have been transmitted from one generation to the other, and to break out of the cycles of violence that we are living through.
We, at CSSD and Columbia Global Freedom of Expression stand in solidarity and admiration for Ayse Gül Altinay and all of our academic colleagues who are being persecuted for their courage to speak out against violent aggression. The injustice of these sentences cannot be tolerated.
CSSD Director presents keynote address at Norwalk Community College
Professor Marianne Hirsch will be the keynote speaker at the 22nd annual Academic Festival hosted by Norwalk Community College.
On Wednesday, April 3, Center for the Study of Social Difference Director and William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Marianne Hirsch will give the keynote address at the 22nd annual Academic Festival at Norwalk Community College.
This year’s conference theme is Postmemory: Hidden Trauma, Healing Narratives, a topic very familiar to Professor Hirsch whose work combines feminist theory with memory studies, particularly the transmission of memories of violence across generations. Professor Hirsch’s keynote lecture, "Postmemory for the Future," will be presented at 10am in the East Campus PepsiCo Theater at Norwalk Community College.
Click here to learn more.
Marianne Hirsch is a co-director of the Women Mobilizing Memory working group, William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a Professor in the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a former President of the Modern Language Association of America.
CSSD Director Gives Talk at Columbia Global Center
Professor Marianne Hirsch discusses “Women Carrying Memories: Stateless Figures” in Istanbul.
On March 28th, Center for the Study of Social Difference Director and William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Marianne Hirsch addressed an audience of over 150 in Istanbul, Turkey on the subject of “Women Carrying Memory: Stateless Figures”. A co-director of the Women Mobilizing Memory working group, Professor Hirsch’s talk highlighted two recent memorial projects by feminist diasporic artists that explore the vicissitudes and vulnerabilities of exile and statelessness. The talk, which culminated in a Q&A session moderated by Ayşe Gül Altınay, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Sabancı University and Aylin Vartanyan, Lecturer at Bogazici University, was a response to the renewed monumentality of memory museums, memorials and commemorative rituals that perpetuate nationalism and ethnocentrism.
Click here to see photos from the event.
For more on Women Mobilizing Memory click here.
Andreas Huyssen Interviewed in Politika
Andreas Huyssen, faculty fellow of the working group Women Mobilizing Memory, spoke with Politika about memory studies.
Andreas Huyssen, faculty fellow of the working group Women Mobilizing Memory and Villard Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was interviewed in Politika for an article entitled “State of the art in memory studies.” In the interview Huyssen discusses the present debate on memory and how the field of memory studies has evolved. The impact that digital technologies and social media has had on the field is addressed as well.
The full interview can be read here.
Andreas Huyssen Interviewed on Memory Studies in Politika
Andreas Hyussen, faculty fellow with the Women Mobilizing Memory Group and Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was interviewed by Patrick Esser for Politika.
Andreas Hyussen, faculty fellow with the Women Mobilizing Memory Group and Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was interviewed by Patrick Esser for Politika. In the interview he talks broadly about memory studies, touching on how the past and the present become entangled in his work.
In addition he discusses how incorporating the arts and humanities into memory culture can make for an interconnected world. The work done on postmemory by fellow working group member Marianne Hirsch is also a topic of conversation.
The full interview can be read here.