Author: Isabella Irtifa

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Presentation

Remaking Institutions with a Liberatory Agenda

Join us Thursday, April 28, at 5:00 pm for a discussion on remaking institutions with a liberatory agenda. The Society and Protest Workshop continues its exploration of insider-outsider strategies of activism, mobilization, and political engagement with a discussion from community scholars.

Scholars

Conor Tomás Reed, Ph.D. is a Puerto Rican/Irish multi-gendered street scholar and freedom maker who teaches Africana Studies and American Studies at Brooklyn College. Conor is a contributing editor with LÁPIZ Journal and Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, and a participant in Free CUNY and Rank and File Action (RAFA). Conor is developing a book about the rise of Black, Puerto Rican, and Women’s Studies and movements at the City College of New York and in New York City from 1960 to the present, as well as a quadrilingual anthology of Black Feminist Studies in the Americas and the Caribbean during this period.

Cedrick-Michael Simmons is pursuing a PhD in sociology at Boston College. His areas of interest include racial ideology, diversity management, and higher education administration. His dissertation focuses on the frameworks and sources of role conflict for diversity administrators. Prior to earning his MA in sociology at Boston College, Cedrick graduated with a BA in sociology from Ithaca College. 

Moderator

John Krinsky, Professor, City College/Graduate Center, CUNY

Link to register

bit.ly/3IC713i

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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Panel Discussion

Tradeoffs of Working within a Political System from Activist Scholars

Join us Thursday, April 7, at 1:00 pm for a panel discussion. The Society and Protest Workshop continues its exploration of insider-outsider strategies of activism, mobilization, and political engagement with a panel discussion of three activist-scholars who have worked to bring political change in their communities.

Panelists

Hisham Bustani is an activist and award-winning author from Amman Jordan who has published five collections (among numerous other publications) of short-fiction and poetry. His most recent collection is The Monotonous Chaos of Existence (Mason Jar Press, 2022).


Stephanie Guilloud is an activist and Co-Director of Project South, a leadership development organization based in Atlanta, GA, that creates spaces for movement building. She is author of two anthologies, including Through the Eyes of the Judged: Autobiographical Sketches by Incarcerated Young Men (Gateway, 2001).


Fred Bauma is a Congolese pro-democracy leader and founder of the youth group LUCHA, which advocates for nonviolent, community-level change and government reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Moderator

Jillian Schwedler, Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center

Link to Register

bit.ly/3IC713i

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion: 501(c)(3) public charities and (c)(4) organizations

Join us Thursday, March 24, at 3:00 pm for a panel discussion on 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) organizations.

Many grassroots organizing groups have set up 501 (c)(4) social welfare organizations to complement their 501(c)(3) charitable work. Setting up a (c)(4) organization allows groups to engage in the political process and to endorse candidates and, possibly, to enhance their ability to move politicians to support their group’s goals. Yet forming a (c)(4) may also entail new organizational demands and complexities, and electoral work may differ significantly from a group’s previous modes of organizing and advocacy. What are the advantages and drawbacks of doing (c)(4) work? Does it change a group’s social change goals? How do both these forms limit what you can do? 

Panelists

Margaret Post, Research Assistant Professor, Clark University

Jawanza Williams, Director of Organizing, VOCAL-NY

Gara LaMarche, Senior Fellow, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New York, CUNY

Moderator

John Krinsky, Professor, City College/Graduate Center, CUNY

Link to register

https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpce-pqTMtHtGbKlSCeZQLRY59KfX5bGf2

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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Paper Discussion

Conceptualizing Co-optation with Dr. Sofia Fenner

Join us Thursday, March 10, at 3:00 pm for a paper presentation by Sofia Fenner on whether opposition parties “sell out” when they join authoritarian governments.

This is the first workshop of the semester under the continuing theme of “Insider-Outsider Strategies”.

Abstract

Co-optation is widely recognized as a pillar of durable authoritarian rule. The conventional story is straightforward: rulers offer benefits to opposition groups, who in turn agree to “sell out,” becoming part of the system and setting aside their anti-authoritarian aspirations. The empirical record, however, tells a different tale: co-opted parties often do not behave in the way that existing theories expect. In this chapter, I lay out an alternative account of co-optation that acknowledges its potential power while remaining agnostic as to its specific consequences.

About the author

Sofia Fenner is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Colorado College. Her research focuses on authoritarianism and its opponents in Southwest Asia and North Africa. Her first monograph, Coercive Distribution (with Michael Albertus and Dan Slater), was published in 2017 as part of Cambridge University Press’ Elements Series. Her next book, Shouting in a Cage: Life after Co-optation in North Africa, is under contract with Columbia University Press.

RSVP to: societyandprotestworkshop@gmail.com