Types of Offerings

Classes/Trainings - Will meet one time

Courses - Will meet repeatedly (between 2 and 4 sessions)

Reading/Discussion Groups - Facilitated discussions about readings and topics, number of sessions will vary

Classes

"Intimacies of Violence" website * Videos of materials covered in previous practice sessions

The word intimacy carries good or positive connotations. You know the touchy feely stuff. And that matters. How does the dichotomy between good and bad intimacies obscure how good intentions may bring harm into being? how do plural violences stay close, get proximate, and even grow on, in and through societies. The goal is to try to answer, or at the very least, expand on this line of questioning. Thus the title: the violence of intimacies or intimacies of violence.

Courses

“Don’t Get Distracted: History of Movements Co-opted” - Emmaia G. (PhD Candidate, American Studies), Tania M. (Queens Neighborhoods United)

In 1980, critical race scholar Derrick Bell wrote (more or less) that our movements only win when letting us win helps the powerful hang on to power. And yes -- we’ve seen demands to end police violence watered down to minor police reforms, and then won. We’ve seen gay marriage take the place of queer liberation, and then won. We’ve seen Black Power beaten back by police violence just as it was redrawing the lines of power. That history teaches us how power works, and how resistance might take shape.

In these sessions we’ll study the cooptation of movements, consider the possibilities for resistance, and look at current organizing embodying resistance. Format: Reading and facilitated discussion in 2-3 stand-alone sessions. Participants will help choose which movements we collectively study before the sessions start, so early sign-up is suggested. All materials will be provided online and for free.



“Universities and Urban Struggle” - Gabriel Y. (PhD Candidate, History & MEIS), Emma M. (PhD Candidate, History), and Alyssa Z.

Our three sessions approach the relationship of the university and struggles over urban space on varying scales. Our first session will provide groundwork by reviewing how a) American cities became new sites of profit-making and dispossession in the neoliberal era, and b) accounts of the place univeriities in that process. Drawing from our own experiences, we will then contemplate NYU’s role in gentrifying the Village and parts of Brooklyn, where resident-activists and organizations from Jane Jacobs to the Housing Justice for All coalition have tried to claim their “right to the city.” In our third session, we hear from housing justice activists in order to learn how folks have combatted real estate/NYU power in Manhattan. All sessions will consist of discussion based on readings, and the latter two will feature guest speakers. We encourage you to attend all three sessions, if you are able, but please attend any and all!



"The University’s Dirty Money" - Financial Research Group, GSOC-UAW Local 2110

Session One: Did NYU Buy My Professor a House? How to Find Out (and Why It Matters) - Facilitator: Sam P. (PhD Student) - Tuesday July 28, 2-3 pm ET

Session Two: Board of Trustees Research Working Party - Facilitators: Mariko W. (PhD Student) and Claire S. (PhD Student) - Thursday July 30, 2-3 pm ET

Session Three: University Finances 101: Important Questions to Ask and How to Answer Them - Facilitators: Bhumika C. (PhD Student), Claire S. (PhD Student) - Monday Aug 3, 2-3 pm ET)



"A Face Mask Wont Fix it: Commodification of $elf Care" - Jenny L. (PhD Candidate)

This two-part offering will examine the commodification and depoliticization of self care. Informed by the writings of radical feminists of color as well as visionary projects like the Nap Ministry and the Icarus Project, we will think together about how we can shift from an individualized, quick-fix model of self-care to one rooted in community. In line with SOS’ theme of abolition, we will also consider the relationship between social work and the carceral state. Together, we will think through how to individually and collectively engage in care (rather than $elf care) that is meaningful and accountable.



A History of Police Violence From Slave Patrols to Shake Shack - Emmaia G. (PhD candidate, American Studies)

This class mixes reading and films on your own, and background lecture and discussion together. In each session we’ll look at a different aspect of how violent policing has developed as a naturalized part of US life. Since this is a very big topic, participants will set priorities for what material is covered. Format: Reading and films on your own, background lecture and discussion together. Each session will build on earlier sessions, but you can join at any point.

Session topics (depending on class priorities):

  • Settlement, slavery, and borders
  • “Threatening people” and “safe spaces”
  • Mass incarceration and the violence of “personal responsibility”
  • Globalization of policing
  • Hiding violence in plain sight: COPS TV, Shake Shack, and viral video

    • Optional writing assignment: Participants can write an essay or opinion piece (based on classwork) for feedback and writing support.

    All readings and films will be available online and free.



    Violence against black african women runs the world website * Videos of materials covered in previous practice sessions

    How do carcerality, policing, borders, the medical industrial complex, the nonprofit industrial complex, the military industrial complex, and empire converge on, instrumentalize, and harm black african women specifically and around the world?

    Reading/Discussion Groups

    "Xenophobia and Immigration Bans" - Sarah S. (PhD Candidate, History)

    This reading and discussion group will address three questions critical to understanding contemporary immigration issues and debates: 1. How has the U.S. government created and used the framework of “deserving” versus “undeserving” immigrants to control migration and confer legal status? 2. Why do politicians, anti-immigrant activists, and media deploy national security arguments to constrict and cut off immigration? How do governments use immigration restriction and promotion to construct national identity and facilitate economic development?

    There will be three units held in reverse chronological order. The first set of readings and media will focus on contemporary debates and issues (asylum, family reunification, and skill-based immigration). The second set will address key debates and laws in the 20th century, such as the immigration quotas of the 1920s and the influence of anti-communism and the Civil Rights movement on immigration law. The final set will focus on the foundational influence of white supremacy in U.S. immigration and naturalization law by unpacking Chinese Exclusion, early U.S. naturalization laws, and settler colonialism. The facilitator(s) will provide a selection of sources (popular articles, book chapters, podcasts and film clips) for each session to accommodate participants’ different levels of familiarity with the concepts. Discussions of readings and other media will be conducted on Whatsapp and (occasionally) Zoom.



    "Beyond Education: Gathering in Study" - Laura N. (PhD Candidate), Isaac H (PhD Candidate), and Stephanie Yawa de Wolfe

    This study group will collectively ask what it would mean to come together to study in a way that feels good, in which we can make a radical present within, against, and beyond the institutions we are a part of. We might look to projects like the Mississippi Freedom Schools, the Malcolm X Liberation University, the Combahee River Collective, the Black Panther schools, and countless others to think about ongoing histories of study. Our discussions and sessions will be shaped by all those who want to join the conversation, and there will be time for us to share projects, collectives, texts, songs, and more that have shaped the ways we think about and imagine study, with the aim of creating a “curriculum for study” that can be shared beyond this group.



    "Learning to Build Power - No Shortcuts: Organizing in the New Gilded Age by Jane McAlevey" - Toby I. (PhD Student, Political Science), Professional Staff Congress - Sundays, 4-5:30 pm ET

    In No Shortcuts, Jane McAlevey, trade organizer and PhD in Sociology, translates her experience, wisdom, and scholarly research into a critical text for organizers of all experience levels. This reading group will offer opportunities to dive deep into the text and ask how we can build power in our communities and workplaces. What does it take to win? In four sessions there will be live discussions, close readings, and opportunities to write and reflect in pairs. Union members are encouraged to join, as are all students and New Yorkers who want to look under the hood at what is required to make serious, democratic, social and economic change.

    This reading group has its roots in graduate student and YDSA organizing across the University of California system, and is part of an effort to build skills and relationships across the labor movement for the next generation. Toby teaches American Government at Baruch College and has worked and organized in employment law, youth development, and the Jewish community.



    "Impulse, Metatheory, and Praxis" website * Videos of materials covered in previous practice sessions

    Which impulses do social justice efforts awaken? What sort of reasoning and logic organize the theories within such impulses? Is it useful to track how the interplay and negotiations between impulse and theory emerges through praxis?

    We will add new offerings to this page as they are finalized