Events for October 21, 2020 - April 30, 2020

Raewyn Connell, Leigh Claire La Berge, and Natasha Warikoo in Conversation about Visions for the Future. Moderated by Stephen Brier.

In this pop-up, Sarah Lamdan—a librarian and professor at CUNY School of Law—reveals how companies providing journals and databases to libraries have morphed into giant “data analytics” corporations, even selling personal data information to fuel law enforcement surveillance, including ICE’s Palantir program.

Internet activist Alison Macrina, the founder and executive director of the Library Freedom Project, leads a discussion highlighting practical strategies and tools that everyone can use to keep their personal information private.

Stacey Abrams, former Georgia gubernatorial nominee and former Georgia House Democratic leader, joins in an important conversation about her visions for the future of democracy with Johnnetta Betsch Cole, former president of Spelman College.

Economist Julia Cagé takes on the huge problem of election financing in The Price of Democracy: How Money Shapes Politics and What to Do About It.

A cross-disciplinary conversation on creative laboratories of justice, democracy and social transformation.

Zoom registration for this event is full.  It will also be broadcast LIVE ON FACEBOOK. Ruth Wilson Gilmore is a leader in the movement to abolish prisons, which has taken on new resonance amidst current protests for racial justice and calls to “defund the police.” According to a New York Times feature on her work, [...]

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the U.S. workforce, exposing deep, existing problems in our country’s employment policies. Millions of workers have suffered from layoffs, reduced hours, diminished earnings, or loss of health insurance — and the pain has been distributed unequally across race and class lines.

Longstanding inequalities in America’s education system have become widely exposed with the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. How can we address the rampant racial disparities and produce more equal outcomes? What roles do technology and pedagogy play? 

In these tumultuous times, new forms of activism and political engagement are needed more than ever. Movements to expand the social safety net in response to the devastation of the coronavirus, along with the Black Lives Matter protests, are working both inside and outside of electoral politics, with on-the-ground activists often taking the lead.

One possible silver lining of the pandemic—seen in empty city streets and unpolluted skylines—has been a glimpse of what a cleaner, low-carbon future could look like.

Artists have always been at the forefront of cultural change, frequently pointing us in the direction of a more equal and democratic society. Often before the rest of the culture is ready, the artist plays a central role in questioning assumptions, visualizing new structures, and picturing a better world to live in.