Dr. Joseph Fischel giving a talk at Geneseo
[Center for Social Justice Studies] News
News article created by the [Center for Social Justice Studies].
The 2025-26 academic year saw a wealth of programs organized and/or co-sponsored by the Center for Social Justice Studies and the three academic programs it houses鈥揋ender, Sexuality, & Women鈥檚 Studies, Black & Africana Studies, and American Studies.
Major events primarily organized or co-sponsored through CSJS included:
- At Your Cervix documentary and panel discussion featuring Holly Eckelberger (Reproductive Justice activist at Roc.SRJ), Brenna McCaffrey (Assistant Professor of Anthropology), Ling Ma (Associate Professor of History), and Amanda Roth (Professor of Philosophy and Gender, Sexuality, & Women鈥檚 Studies) took place in October.
- Dr. Joe Fischel, Professor of Women鈥檚, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University visited Geneseo in April 2026 offering a public lecture titled 鈥淎 Right to Queerness: Sexual Politics Under Fascism鈥� drawn from his recent book and ongoing research. He also visited a session of BLKS/WGST 490 & 491 (senior seminar) to talk with students about his work and connections to their own research projects.
- Dr. Enrique Okenve, Senior Lecture in History and Archaeology at the University of the West Indies (Jamaica) visited in April 2026. He offered a public talk on 鈥淪etting Africanness and Blackness Apart? Discourses of Domination across the late Black Atlantic鈥� and gave a personal talk drawing on his education and career trajectory to graduating seniors in our CSJS programs at our 2026 senior send off and awards ceremony.
In addition, the new went live, with multiple 2026 graduates completing it. Center faculty also worked with Communications and Marketing to produce a within our programs.
At the end of the academic year, we celebrated our amazing students with our annual awards in Black Studies and Gender, Sexuality, & Women鈥檚 Studies. Winners included:
- GSWS Christine de Pizan Paper Award
- GSWS Harriet Tubman Activism/Leadership Award
- BLKS awardees in multiple categories included:
- Violet Rand “Patois Prerogative in Post-Colonial Literature鈥� is by Violet Rand
- Hailey Christopher “The Race of Achievement: European Dominance and the Construction of African Historiography鈥�
- Lainelle Brazee “Compassion Fatigue: Empathy or Absolvement?鈥�
We also sent off a number of graduating majors, minors, and concentrators in the three programs with our best wishes for their future.
Finally, looking forward to next academic year, Dr. Susana Castillo-Rodriguez, coordinator of Black studies and Associate Professor of Global Languages, and and Ola Nwabara, Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing, have arranged for Geneseo to host the 48th N CSJS looks forward to supporting this exciting event and more!