BCRW @ 50

2010s to Present Day: Commitment to Activism

In the past decade, the Barnard Center for Research on Women has strengthened and reiterated its commitment to activism and social justice. Under the guidance of Directors Janet Jakobsen, Tina Campt, and Elizabeth Castelli, BCRW’s Social Justice Institute has formalized these partnerships. Thanks to an anonymous donor in 2014, BCRW was able to give four year-long fellowships to activists Katherine Acey, Amber Hollibaugh, Tourmaline Gossett, and Dean Spade ‘97. This later expanded ini 2016 to the inaugural Social Justice Institute cohort (2016-2018), which included Activists-in-Residence Tourmaline, Cara Page, Tarso Ramos, and Dean Spade, and Researcher-in-Residence Andrea Ritchie. Katherine Acey and Amber Hollibaugh remained Emerita Fellows. In 2018, a new cohort (2018-2020) was welcomed, including Activist-in-Residence CeCe McDonald, Artist-in-Residence La Vaughn Belle, and Researchers-in-Residence Andrea Ritchie and Mariame Kaba. 

To this day, BCRW continues its mission of promoting feminist scholarship through engaging with topics of race, gender, and sexuality. Despite shifts in the women’s movement over the past 50 years, feminism and feminist scholarship remain salient and poignent to new generations of women, queer and trans folks, and people of color. As Jane Gould acknowledged in 1979 (“The women’s movement will never go away”) and Janet Jakobsen echoed in 2006 ("Despite the mainstream press’ frequent claims to the contrary, feminism is far from dead”), feminism and the fight for social justice will never be over. In a quote from a video made for the 30th anniversary of the Scholar and Feminist in 2005, Dr. Andree-Nicola McLaughlin said, "It's not just about gender equality anymore, because we're asking, 'equal to what?' Equal to dominate? Equal to exploit? Equal to oppress? Now I think we're talking fundamentally about social transformation, so people can live in a free and just and safe world."

We invite you to explore the history of BCRW further through this project, and reflect on the legacy of feminist research, pedagogy, and activism that weaves its way through the past 50 years. 

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