The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice at Hofstra University

As I write this blog entry, I can still remember going out to eat with a friend at one of Hofstra’s dining halls one day in early March, 2020 and being suddenly shocked by a loud wave of cheering and yelling around me: Hofstra had canceled classes for the week! Without realizing what lay in store for us all, I went to my dorm, said goodbye to some friends, and drove home that afternoon. Little did I know that that day would be my last drive away from campus for the semester, and that I would have to finish my freshman year in that fashion. What I thought would be an extra week added on to my Spring Break vacation has turned into three months of “New York on pause” and being confined to our home. My family and I have been fortunate enough to stay well, but the massive public health crisis has definitely taken a toll on our lives. Although being at home was something that I cherished and looked forward when I was in school, craving a home-cooked meal and having th...

Will we ever shake hands again? What will become of movie theaters and music concerts? What will happen to restaurants and air travel? Will we ever return to life as we once knew it? Yes, I believe we will eventually return to normal life, but it will be a “new normal.” COVID-19 has turned our world upside down. Health care professionals are working longer ­­­and more exhausting hours, our streets are empty, and our children are being homeschooled alongside their parents who are working from home. Millions of American businesses and lives have been put on pause and everyone wants to know what life will look like when this pandemic comes to an end. The most recent American pandemic on this scale happened just over 100 years ago during the ‘Spanish” Flu of 1918. Some theorists estimate that the Covid-19 pandemic may surpass the human and economic toll of that time, despite the advancements we have made in science, medicine and technology. In retrospect, the Gre...

Note: Prof. Silvia Federici was originally invited as a guest speaker at Hofstra University for a public lecture on April 26, 2020, co-sponsored by the Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice. The students in my course History 178C: “Sorcery and Witch Hunts in Europe and the Americas” were assigned to read her recent book Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women (PM Press, 2018). The closure of the Hofstra University campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that this class met synchronously via Zoom, but Prof. Federici was able to join us from her home to discuss a wide range of topics relating to gender, violence, and social injustices across the globe. Among these topics were the economic context of the pandemic, historical and contemporary violence against women, women’s solidarity and resistance movements, and the clash between modern ‘western’ knowledge systems and other forms of knowledge. “We are still dealing with the devil”, affirms Silvia Federici over Zoom. Federici, a...