News

Find out what's happening at SCA!

APRIL 4, 2022

CONGRATULATIONS TO PROFESSOR AND SCA DEPARTMENT CHAIR JENNIFER MORGAN ON ACCEPTING THE 2022 OAH MARY NICKLISS PRIZE THIS PAST WEEKEND!

2022 Organization of American Historians Conference on American History 

Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women’s and/or Gender History for the most original book in U.S. Women’s and/or Gender History (including North America and the Caribbean prior to 1776)

Prize Committee:

    Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, Western Carolina University, Chair

    Heather Miyano Kopelson, University of Alabama

    Brianna Theobald, University of Rochester

WINNER: Jennifer L. Morgan, New York University, Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship, and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic (Duke University Press).

"In Reckoning with Slavery, Jennifer L. Morgan excavates the lives, decisions, and epistemological shifts behind the technologies—ship manifests, bills of sale, and merchant records—of commerce, trade, and capitalism. What she uncovers is that enslaved African women were foundational to the early centuries of the slave trade, the rise of capitalism, and ideas of modernity itself. It was on their bodies, subjected to violence and subsequent erasure, that the calculus of commodification occurred, rendering women in life and in the official records kinless, without rational economic minds, without sexual mores, and without history. And yet, their love for their children, their resistance, and their decisions provide the counternarrative to racial capitalism. Their stories, so expertly revealed and crafted by Morgan, expose the calculations of capitalists without replicating that legacy in the history we tell. Her work promises to transform how we understand the Black Atlantic, the rise of racial capitalism, and the world we live in today."

To read more about the OAH Annual Meeting and Awards, click here.

 

Seated Professor Jennifer Morgan posing with copies of the prize winning book, Reckoning with Slaver

MARCH 16, 2022

NYU PRISON EDUCATION PROGRAM'S RESEARCH LAB GETS COMMUNITY PROJECT FUNDS 

With support from Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and Congressman Nadler, the NYU Prison Education Program’s Research Lab has received community project funding in the amount of $300,000. (This is the only NYU Community Project proposal to get selected for federal funding for FY22).

Led by SCA Faculty members Thuy Linh Tu, Andrew Ross and Julie Livingston, along with PEPs Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow Tomasso Bardelli,  PEPs Research Lab engages in participatory research and academic support of PEP students currently enrolled at NYU and working toward their BA degrees. 

PEP is especially grateful for the support of FAS Dean Antonio Merlo and Steve Heuer and Aaron Rosenthal from the NYU Office of Government Affairs.

This is another fantastic milestone for the Prison Education Program.

NYU Prison Education Program’s Research Lab gets community project funds
 
With support from Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and Congressman Nadler, the NYU Prison Education Program’s Research Lab has received community project funding in the amount of $300,000. (This is the only NYU Community Project proposal to get selected for federal funding for FY22).
 
Led by SCA Faculty members Thuy Linh Tu, Andrew Ross and Julie Livingston, along with PEPs Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow Tomasso Bardelli,  PEPs Research Lab engages in participatory research and academic support of PEP students currently enrolled at NYU and working toward their BA degrees. 
 
PEP is especially grateful for the support of FAS Dean Antonio Merlo and Steve Heuer and Aaron Rosenthal from the NYU Office of Government Affairs.
 
This is another fantastic milestone for the Prison Education Program.
NYU Prison Education Program’s Research Lab gets community project funds
 
With support from Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and Congressman Nadler, the NYU Prison Education Program’s Research Lab has received community project funding in the amount of $300,000. (This is the only NYU Community Project proposal to get selected for federal funding for FY22).
 
Led by SCA Faculty members Thuy Linh Tu, Andrew Ross and Julie Livingston, along with PEPs Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow Tomasso Bardelli,  PEPs Research Lab engages in participatory research and academic support of PEP students currently enrolled at NYU and working toward their BA degrees. 
 
PEP is especially grateful for the support of FAS Dean Antonio Merlo and Steve Heuer and Aaron Rosenthal from the NYU Office of Government Affairs.
 
This is another fantastic milestone for the Prison Education Program.
4 Prison Education Program Graduates celebrating joyously in purple NYU caps and gowns

Introducing Articles and Essays

Curious about what SCA Faculty are currently researching? Now you can read their essays online on our new page, Articles and Essays. 

August 6, 2020

It is with great sadness that the SCA community says goodbye to our friend and colleague Miriam Jiménez Román. Activist and author, Miriam Jiménez Román passed away on August 6, 2020 after a long fight with cancer.  The co-editor of the foundationally important The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States Miriam's work focuses on amplifying and centering the stories of Afro-Latino peoples. As a visiting scholar in the Africana Studies Program at SCA and the Executive Director of The Afrolatin@ Forum, she was a driving force in researching and creating resources on Afro-Latin@s in the United States. In 2014, Miriam lost her best friend and the love of her life, Juan Flores, a beloved professor of SCA who was a leading pioneer, scholar, and expert in Latin American and Nuyorican culture. In love and in life, they were an intellectual power couple. Together, they touched the lives of countless young scholars, especially the Latinx and Afro-Latin@ students Miriam tirelessly mentored. Our memories of Miriam will live on, as will her passion to bring Afro-Latin@ issues to the forefront of any and all conversations.   She will be greatly missed by us and by all those who have been impacted by her work and her spirit.

Afro Latin@ Forum's Obituary for her can be read here.

November 20, 2019

Congratulations to Elizabeth Mesok! She graduated from SCA with her PhD in American Studies in 2013, was recently awarded the PRIMA grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. The 1.3 million dollar grant will allow Mesok to run a five-year project from the Gender Studies Department at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The project looks at the emergence of gendered approaches to security in the name of "countering and preventing violent extremism," and is a progression of the research Mesok conducted during her time at SCA, which focused on the U.S. military’s instrumentalization of gender difference for counterinsurgency operations. More information about the grant can be found here.

November 4, 2019

Professor Andrew Ross won the Palestine Book Award for his book, Stone Men! Read more about it here.

November 1, 2019

We are excited to announce that SCA will have a total of 11 presentations at this year's ASA Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii! Read more here.

June, 2, 2019

The Department of Social & Cultural Analysis sadly announces Professor Jean Michael Dash's death on June 2, 2019.  Read more.

May 22, 2019

Congrats to Class of 2019! Special recognition to Matthew Perry (CAS Standard Bearer), Scott Cosgun (Diploma Recipient), & Jose Diaz (Preshow)!

May 2, 2019

SCA Faculty passed a resolution of non-cooperation with NYU Tel Aviv. Read more here.

March 12, 2019

Congratulations to American Studies Ph.D alumna Emily L. Thuma on the publication of her book, All Our Trials. Click here to read more.

February 19, 2019

Congratulations to Professor Crystal Parikh! Her latest book,  Writing Human Rights: The Political Imaginaries of Writers of Color, has won the 2019 Association for Asian American Studies Award for Outstanding Achievement in Humanities and Cultural Studies: Literature! See all the winner here.

February 13, 2019

The Latinx Project's first exhibition “PELEA: Visual Responses to Spatial Precarity” at King Juan Carlos Center got featured in Art News! If you're interested in attending, then please check out their page to RSVP.

February 8, 2019

Congratulations to Professor Autumn Rain for receiving  NYU's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award! See all the winners here.

August 28, 2018

Introducing the Latinx Project at SCA! The Latinx Project is a space we hope will serve as a platform to highlight Latinx studies research, scolarship and make community.

Check out their website for upcoming events! https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/

August 16, 2018

Congratulations to Joan Morgan.  Joan's new book  She Begat This: 20 Years of ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,’  was prominantly and enthusiastically reviewed in today's New York Times!  We are so proud!!

May 17, 2018

Congratulations to our many students who received awards this year! We are so proud of each and everyone one of you! See the full list of student awards here.

 

April 16, 2018

Congratulations to Professor Cecilia Márquez! Cecilia Márquez (Social and Cultural Analysis) and Robyn d'Avignon (History) have received a Curricular Development Challenge Fund (CDCF) grant for their project "Teaching Latino/a and African Studies through New York City's Archives." They will use the grant to cull archival resources throughout the city that will support their courses: "Latino/a Social Movements" and "New York, An African City." These courses will incorporate the unique resources of New York City as a way to incorporate digital humanities in the classroom and develop undergraduate research skills. 

April 11, 2018

If you're curious and want to learn more about Professor Tao Leigh Goffe, then check out her profile in the Princeton Alumni Weekly magazine.

April 10, 2018

Check out Professor Deborah Willis in the news!

Inspired by Deborah Willis’s seminal book, Reflections in Black, the photographers behind Mfon: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora hoped to serve communities of underrepresented women, namely black women, in fields of photography and fine art. Read more on Buzzfeed.

Directed and conceived by Deborah Willis, the captivating and illuminated piece personified Joe Henry’s song Civil War though dance and expression. The film brings intersectional struggles of black womanhood, black masculinity, black masculinity in the Civil War Era and man-women relationships, all while reimagining history. Read more on the Smithsonian.

 

February 21, 2018

Professor Micheal Ralph launched the Treasury of Weary Souls, a multimedia platform on slave insurance. 

The Treasury of Weary Souls contains more than 1300 policy records of enslaved workers in America's most lucrative and dangerous antebellum industries.

After the slave trade to the US was outlawed in 1808, Africans were smuggled into the country (a tricky process), they were bred (which depended on the human life cycle), and they were rented (so the people who treated them as property could make as much money as possible). People who rented slaves insured them, so that these valuable assets would not be destroyed while in someone else's possession.

Legally slaves were property. But, no other form of property could enhance its value through the skills it acquired. The Treasury of Weary Souls is the first resource to consolidate policy information on the practice of insuring human beings from enslaved persons treated as cargo on Transatlantic vessels, to enslaved workers in America’s most dangerous and most lucrative industries. The Treasury of Weary Souls contains data on financial firms who acquired slave insurance policies during the 20th century and continue to profit from them today. 

Check out the article about it on TechCrunch!

Februrary 15, 2018

Professor Nikhil Singh was interviewed on The Intercepted. Listen to it now!

December 1, 2017

Congratulations to our undergraduate student, Richa Lagu, on receiving the DURF award for her research on zines as activist literature!

November 20, 2017

Congratulations to our very own, Professor Josie Saldana, for being awarded the 2017 John Hope Franklin Prize for best published book in American Studies!

October 4, 2017

Just another day at SCA... celebrating Golden Week with a little bit of mooncake :)

"Today the moon is at its largest. Go outside, eat mooncake, think of your far away loved ones and know they are seeing the same moon."

 

September 18, 2017

SCA...where walls come down!

Brick courtesy of Bosco Sodi from his event at Washington Square Park on September 7, 2017.

August 29, 2017

Fall semester starts next week and we are looking forward to see everyone. Don't forget to check our events calendar for upcoming events!

August 10, 2017

Congratulations to newly minted phd, Dr. James Rodriguez!

May 18, 2017

We are excited to announce that American Studies Ph.D. Dawn Peterson published her first book, Indians in the Family.

In Solidatrity from the Staff and Faculty of SCA

SCA persists in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and with protestors in New York, in the nation, and across the globe to demand racial justice, denounce police brutality, and insist that Black lives matter. We will continue to work to enact emancipation, the abolition of state-sanctioned white supremacy, and egalitarian futures.

In the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, as scholars, teachers, and staff, we are united by our commitment to understanding the processes by which communities demand justice. We have watched the COVID-19 pandemic ravage our communities and our city, and have noted along with so many others that the virus was a magnifier of all the economic, racial, and ethnic disparities that have been endemic in our nation for decades now. The killings of Breonna Taylor, of Ahmaud Arbery, of Tony McDade, and of George Floyd and many other Black people have brought those disparities into sharp and devastating relief. Gripped by a mixture of hope, anger and fear, we join in person and in spirit, the thousands upon thousands gathered to protest, to raise our voices, and to demand—in the face of sometimes violent and weaponized opposition—the rights of equal protection and equal access.

The Department of Social & Cultural Analysis is an interdisciplinary space of teaching and research. Our intellectual legacy draws on theoretical insights from social geography, feminism and queer studies, ethnic studies, critical race theory, labor studies, and cultural studies. We are an intellectual space that analyzes racism and challenges white supremacy from numerous approaches, from local New York City policing policies to global environmental racism. 

SCA will remain a safe haven for students, faculty, scholars, staff and members of the NYC community. We know a large university like NYU can seem like a bureaucratic institution, so we at SCA have always made our space and events as welcoming and open as possible. We plan to continue to do so, by creating a safe and edifying online space for our students, faculty, staff, and our communities beyond NYU. This will include online events, resource links, and opportunities for students to meet one-on-one with faculty members to discuss our current times. Know that not only have we been here for you, we will remain here for you. Behind the scenes, we are working to improve your experience at SCA by requesting resources to hire more faculty of color, to put on special events, for financial support for students, and building liaisons with city organizations and activist groups.

During the past few weeks, many groups and organizations have crafted a response to the world’s response to the recent murders. The Department of Social & Cultural Analysis responds to these kinds of concerns in every class we teach and every event we host, and we believe our distinguished alumni and current students possess the passion and knowledge needed to illuminate injustices and to help foster the healing our world so desperately needs.

We are proud of and support the members of our community who are not just in the streets, but quite literally putting their lives and bodies on the line to denounce anti-Black violence and police impunity. In that spirit, SCA persists in solidarity with protestors both in New York, in the nation, and across the globe to demand racial justice, denounce police brutality, and insist that Black lives matter. We will continue to work to enact emancipation, the abolition of state-sanctioned white supremacy, and egalitarian futures.

In solidarity from the Staff and Faculty of SCA

SCA STATEMENT ON SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE

Two years ago, SCA faculty voted to cease cooperation with NYU-Tel Aviv on the grounds that the program’s operation violates NYU’s own policy on ethics regarding nondiscrimination, mutual respect, and diversity. Israel’s law of entry makes it impossible for all of our students, faculty, and staff to access the Tel Aviv site. Then and now, SCA has students who have been denied access to Israel and the Occupied Territories on the basis of ethnicity and/or religion, or for their views on Palestinian human rights, and have been subject to censure on account of the latter.

A similar position has now been adopted in a Faculty of Color for an Anti-Racist NYU petition that has generated several hundred endorsements from NYU faculty, students, and staff.

In response to the recent (and ongoing) harms inflicted by Israeli authorities on Palestinian communities, we are expressing our solidarity with those who are confronting displacement, ethnic cleansing, land theft, and militarized violence. These views are in keeping with our fundamental commitment to racial justice and to decolonization.

In addition, and separately, SCA has a long-standing interest in scholarship and teaching that focuses on the Middle East and US entanglements with the region. Along with the American Studies Association, we recognize that settler colonialism in the US was not a singular, or exceptional, event, but is part of a larger history that continues today, on the lands of historic Palestine. In accordance with that shared disciplinary paradigm, SCA’s American Studies graduate program is a signatory to this statement.

SCA FACULTY STATEMENT ON GSOC ACTION

The faculty of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis are steadfast in respecting the rights of our graduate students. We firmly believe that graduate student employees should be free to act on their own convictions about the union contract negotiations before them. Whatever our individual opinions on this matter, we are committed, as a department, to honoring relationships of collegial trust and mutual respect with all our students, including those who teach alongside us. In the event of a strike, we agree not to act or intervene in a way that would impede any student’s academic progress, or penalize any student with regard to grades, departmental funding, or academic evaluations and recommendations. Nor will we report to anyone else about students who may or may not be participating in any union action.