Boycott

Presented by the Athena Center, co-sponsored by BCRW

Over the past year, bills aimed at preventing boycotts of fossil fuels, firearms, and other industries have been introduced in dozens of states. These bills are nearly identical to the anti-boycott laws that have been passed in 34 states since 2015 and that specifically focus on boycotts of Israel.

Does the government have the power to condition jobs and investments on an individual or company having a particular political position? Should it? In June 2022, a federal appeals court upheld Arkansas’s anti-boycott law in Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip, et al — a decision the ACLU has petitioned the Supreme Court to review and overturn.

Join us for a screening of Boycott, a 2022 film that focuses on anti-boycott laws that require the recipient of state contracts to affirm that they will not engage in a boycott of Israel, and features the Arkansas Times publisher. The film will be followed by a conversation with the director of the film, the news publisher featured in the film, and First Amendment experts about how anti-boycott legislation works, in what realms we might see it next, and what the future of this particular, powerful form of protest might look like.

Following the screening will be a panel discussion with Julia Bacha (Director of Boycott), Ramya Krishnan (Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University), Alan Leveritt (Arkansas Times), and Lawrence Glickman (Professor of American Studies at Cornell University), moderated by Rozina Ali (The New York Times Magazine).

This event is sponsored by the Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard College and co-sponsored by BCRW, the Barnard Film Program, and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

Accessibility

This event is free and open to the public. You must RSVP to attend.