Description

This year’s Scholar and Feminist Conference will bring together a broad community of thinkers and organizers to grapple with the ever-deepening penetration of surveillance practices into everyday life, and ways to engage in self-defense against the militarized, racist police state's demands for constant access in the name of "security" and public order. Sessions will focus on technologies of surveillance and self-defense; the normalization of the in/security state; and medical-legal surveillance. Our keynote speaker Simone Brown, author of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness, will open the conference by grounding us in the prescient and deeply entrenched legacies of anti-black racism and white supremacy in state, social, and capitalist systems.

Program

Please note: The program is subject to minor adjustments.

Friday, February 16

4–5:30/6 PM: Self-Defense Labs

Workshop 1: Community Safety & Security Team Training
Facilitated by Meejin Richart and Steve Kohut

We invite all, and especially those interested in contributing to the safety, wellness and self-determination of those most impacted by violence from police and outside agitators, to join us for an interactive and informational training on community security. Participants will learn about the role security teams play during community actions and events, and receive training on basic protocols and skills needed to conduct security for rallies and marches.

Steve Kohut is a member of the Justice Committee, born and raised in the Lower East Side and a proud Nuyorican. Meejin Richart is a volunteer with CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, and provides ongoing support for families whose loved ones have been killed by NYPD.

Workshop 2: The C.O.R.E.: A Sci-Fi Immigrant/ Trans Youth Narrative on Resisting a Surveillance State
Workshop and Screening with Global Action Project

As educators, artists, activists, and users of digital media, it is critical to have stories, tools and practices to engage our speculative imaginations and envision a world where state surveillance is not equivalent to safety and security is found in community. To help create these concepts in the real world we can use the digital world to map out, design and plan alternative futures. For our workshop, The C.O.R.E. - A Sci-Fi Immigrant/ Trans Youth Narrative on Resisting a Surveillance State, Global Action Project (G.A.P.) will present a short dystopian narrative, The C.O.R.E., that imagines a future social order where immigrants and TLGBQ communities are relegated to the lowest caste. Following the screening, participants will engage with G.A.P.'s Movement History Timeline, a user-friendly, online application, to add their personal stories and utopian visions to a future that must be dreamed before it can be lived.

Workshop 3: Surveillance and Self-Defense Strategies
Facilitated by Alison Macrina, Community Team Lead at the Tor Project

This workshop will explore the landscape of surveillance technology and strategies that participants can employ to reduce harm. The workshop will cover threat modeling and risk assessment, exploring the specific ways that people are affected by state surveillance based on race, class, gender, ability, immigrant status, and other factors, with information about threat actors like ICE, the FBI, and local police and their surveillance capabilities. Participants will also discuss corporate surveillance and the relationship between third-party tracking and state surveillance–and how to block those trackers. Participants will learn basic tools and best practices for privacy using encrypted messaging, Tor Browser, and more. This workshop is interactive, but participants are not required to have or bring computers or phones to participate and learn.

6:30–8 PM: "they said in the name of self-defense": Selling the In/Security State
Featuring selections from the film "Pinkwashing Exposed" and a panel discussion with Rabab Abdulhadi, Dylan Rodriguez, Nandita Sharma, and Dean Spade '97, moderated by Craig Willse

Title quote from June Jordan, “Apologies to all the People in Lebanon,” Dedicated to the 600,000 Palestinian men, women, and children who lived in Lebanon from 1948-1983. From Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2005).

Saturday, February 17

9–10 AM: Registration and Breakfast

10–11:30 AM: "the fake road, its cruel deception, is what we have to abandon": Normalizing the In/Security State: Police and Prisons
Jordan Camp, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Christina Heatherton, and Mariame Kaba, moderated by Tina Campt

Title quote from Adrienne Rich, “USonian Journals 2000: Incline,” The School Among the Ruins: 2000-2004 (New York: Norton, 2004).

11:40 AM–1:10 PM: "in this time of siege for me and mine, mi raza": Normalizing the In/Security State: Border Enforcement

Rachel Buff, Inderpal Grewal, Arun Kundnani, and Marlene Nava Ramos, moderated by Manu Vimalassery

Title quote from Maria Melendez Kelson, “ICE Agents Storm My Porch,” Poetry (March 2014).

1:10-2 PM: Lunch

2–2:30 PM: Psalm for the Mismeasured & Unfit: A Performance Installation on the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC)

Curator, Writer & Producer: Cara Page
Curatorial Asst. & Researcher: Nicola Glen Douglas
Choreodirector and Creative Collaborator: Ebony Noelle Golden
Ensemble: Vesta Walker, Jaime Dzandu, Audrey Hailes, Jehan Roberson, Sara Abdullah
Videographers: NY Native Video

2:40–4:10 PM: "its known and unknown powers/ to bind and dissociate": Forensic Genetics and the Policing of Biology
Toby Beauchamp, Shoshana Magnet, Cara Page, Rori Rohlfs, and Harriet Washington, moderated by Anthony Ureña

Title quote from Adrienne Rich, “USonian Journals 2000: Mission Statement,” The School Among the Ruins: 2000-2004 (New York: Norton, 2004).

4:30–6 PM: Keynote: Simone Browne, author of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness

6 PM: Closing reception

Details and Accessibility

This event is free and open to the public. The venue is accessible to people with mobility disabilities. Please contact BCRW for additional accessibility needs.

Light snacks will be provided on Friday between workshops and the evening panel. On Saturday, we will provide breakfast, lunch, and a light reception, with snacks and coffee/tea throughout the day.

RSVP is preferred but not required.

ASL interpretation (with All Hands in Motion) and Spanish language interpretation (with Caraol Interpreters Cooperative) will be provided on Saturday 2/17 from 4:30 – 6 PM for the keynote lecture by Simone Browne, author of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness.

La convención tendrá los servicios de interpretación en español disponibles durante la conferencia de apertura de Simone Browne, autor de Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness el Sábado 2/17 4:30-6pm. Servicios de interpretación provistos por Caracol Interpreters Coop.

Co-sponsors: Barnard College Library, Barnard Student Life, Center for Critical Interdisciplinary Studies (BC), Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (NYU), Department of Africana Studies (BC), New Directions in American Studies (BC), GendeRevolution (CU)

Subverting Surveillance: Strategies to End State Violence