The lineup for the Spring 2024 “New Books by BC Faculty Series” is as follows: Abortion Beyond the Law Wednesday, March 6, 1–2 p.m. (Hybrid event) Brooklyn College Women’s Center, 227 Ingersoll Hall Extension Online registration required Celebrate the recent publication of Abortion Beyond the Law by Professor of Sociology Naomi Braine and learn about the transnational feminist movement for self-managed medication abortion. The book came out of six years of research, including interviews with 70 activists across four continents, to explore the strategies feminists have developed to enable people facing unwanted pregnancies to safely have an abortion regardless of the law. Braine will discuss her research and the book, and panelists Sybil Nkeiruka Nmezi, founder of Generation Initiative for Women and Youth Network in Nigeria, and Caitlin Gerdts, Vice President for Research at Ibis Reproductive Health, will bring the conversation forward to discuss their work today. The Future of New York City: Who Decides? Monday, March 18, 6 p.m. Online registration required. Celebrate Anthropology Professor Naomi Schiller’s recent co-authored book at an event that will explore what role people can play in shaping the future of their neighborhood and the broader city. Speakers will explore how community organizers attempt to navigate New York City’s complex official decision-making processes to fight for housing and build healthy and sustainable communities. We’ll address how community organizers have responded to Mayor Eric Adams’ vision for a “City of Yes” and what possibilities Community Land Trusts offer for people to steward land on behalf of local communities. Panelists will build on the lessons advanced in their collectively produced handbook, Disruptive Engagement: An Organizer’s Guide to Building Community Power for Justice in Land Use and Housing in New York City. Affective Masculinities: From Colonial Fathers to Bachelor Banisters in India and England (19th and 20th Centuries) Thursday, April 18, 4:15–5:55 p.m. Woody Tanger Auditorium, Brooklyn College Library Celebrate History Professor Swapna M. Banerjee’s latest book, Fathers in the Motherland: Imagining Fatherhood in Colonial India (Oxford University Press, 2022). Banerjee will be joined by NYU History Professor Ren Pepitone. The book contends that during a period of social and political change in late 19th and early 20th-century colonial India, , fathers extended their roles beyond breadwinning to take an active part in rearing their children. Exploring specific moments when educated men—as biological fathers, literary activists, and educators—assumed guardianship and became crucial agents of change, Banerjee interrogates the connections between fatherhood and masculinity. The last chapter of the book draws on the lives of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to provide a broader salience to its argument. Reclaiming two missing links in Indian history, the book argues that biological and imaginary “fathers” assumed the moral guardianship of an incipient nation and rested their hopes and dreams on the future generation. Advocacy and Archaeology: Present Thoughts Wednesday, May 8, 6 p.m. Online registration required. Celebrate Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kelly Britt’s recently published co-edited volume, Advocacy and Archaeology: Urban Intersections. The book is based on the theme of activism in urban settings, drawing on the endeavors of those working in these settings and their advocacy efforts on a variety of social justice and historic preservation projects. This event will bring the conversations highlighted in this volume into the present moment as archaeologists face ongoing and increasing challenges. Further information on the books in the series is available here.https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/wolfe2023/newbooksbyfacultyspring24
