Summer Syllabi: Justice
A look back at Occupy Wall Street, the fight for bodily autonomy in Texas, LGBTI rights in Venezuela, the promise of Black Lives Matter, and more in the third installment of our Summer Syllabi series
August 11, 2022
In this week’s issue of Public Seminar, we feature the third installment of our Summer Syllabi series: Justice!
Ten Years After Occupy Wall Street
“A moment of madness that began on September 17, 2011, illuminated the world where the “99 percent” lived,” the sociologist Nara Roberta Silva writes as she reflects on Occupy’s hits and misses.
The Promise of Black Lives Matter
Maneesh Arora, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, on how to sustain a popular movement that can dismantle structural racism in America.
Abortion Alone Is Not Justice
“We need a feminist movement that will stand up for conditions that facilitate life and well-being for all of us, because the situation of women, queer, and trans people—especially those of color—is a crisis that makes abortion necessary,” contends Laura Briggs, professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Breaking Through for LGBTQI Rights
Public Seminar’s Daniel Fermín interviews trans activist Richelle Briceño and LGBTI activist Yendri Velásquez, highlighting how movements fighting homophobia and transphobia in Venezuela offer an example of organizing that successfully joins forces across ideological and partisan lines.
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Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Thou Shalt Not Lie
Claire Potter warns that anti-abortion activists lure clients in by posing as medical facilities, and explains how local ordinances can force them to tell the truth… or close.
Why Activists Matter to Constitutional Change
Beyond the textual loopholes narrative, “a more promising approach would learn from a different historical moment, when Black workers and civil rights activists understood the meaning of the amendment to be inseparable from social relations at work, on the street, and in the voting booth”. Historian Sam Klug on the Thirteenth Amendment.
Fighting for Bodily Autonomy Is a Texas Tradition
As the state shuts down services for abortion and transgender kids, Lauren Gutterman sheds light on how grassroots activists call on their history to fight back.
Water Belongs to the People, Not Corporations
“We need to further remind ourselves that water, the environment, and human beings are sacred, and to reaffirm our commitments to protecting nature and non-human beings from any action that seeks to destroy them,” environmentalist Simona Perry on protecting our water and the sacred commitment to all life on earth.