When: June 24 - 27, 2024
Where: Hunter College, CUNY (NYC)
Submission Deadline: November 15, 2023 (rolling admissions before date) at https://www.nymasa.com/institute
Decisions: January 15, 2024

***Women of color, queer, trans, gender non-binary, working-class and other underrepresented folx are especially encouraged to apply***

The New York Metro American Studies Association (NYMASA) invites applications for a week-long summer institute June 24-27, 2024, exploring the multiple manifestations of abolition and abolitionism in the United States. Higher education faculty at all levels (including adjuncts and contingent faculty), graduate students, K-12 teachers, independent scholars, artists, activists and community organizers, journalists, librarians, archivists, and other cultural workers are highly encouraged to apply.

Abolitionism has long been a vital element of American life and, as a political strategy, has adapted to different historical moments. As a radical response to structures of colonization and displacement, enslavement, imperialism, militarism, environmental injustice, ableism, and mass incarceration, abolition has taken up a variety of approaches, from armed struggle to tax resistance to peaceful protest. Along with movements for abolition, activists, artists, and scholars have forged survival strategies and reimagined a better, more democratic, and just world. At the same time, abolition movements have not been immune to the inequities of gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, and national origin, among other differences. The institute will engage historical abolitionist movements and contemporary organizing to gain a rich perspective on the complex pasts and presents of abolition as a concept and a goal.

Over the course of the institute, visiting lecturers will share expertise in a variety of fields, including visual media, material culture, textiles, and archival resources. Institute faculty will also lead visits to local historical and cultural institutions such as the New York Public Library, New York Historical Society, Interference Archive, and the FIT archives. Participants will present their works in progress that engage with the histories and current expressions of abolition.

Applicants should submit the following materials by November 15, 2023:

• 250-300 word statement on what they hope to gain from participation in the institute
• 250-300 word statement detailing what they would contribute to the scholarship, creative activity, and/or pedagogy around abolition
• 1-2 page CV

Selection committee decisions will be sent by January 15, 2024. Registration for the Institute (paid once accepted) is $150 and includes all field trips and daily breakfast and lunch. The registration fee is not refundable. If $150 is not affordable due to un- or underemployment, please contact us AFTER you submitted this application to let us know what amount you are able to afford.