Anthropology and Social Change

4/4 We will challenge convictions, break conventions and twist our minds around unexpected takes on the big questions of our time.

3/4 The Kurdistan Freedom Movement may be the most astonishing example in the world today. In a series of three days of lectures and discussions we will find out what motivates, inspires and drives this freedom movement.

2/4 In a conflict-ridden world that seems to get bleaker every day, there are persons, movements and whole regions that are staying optimistic and don’t let anything stop them from defending their ideas and constructing freedom every day.

Event flyer. Mostly-obscured Kurdish mural in the background of a femme figure holding an autumn, leafless tree in her upturned left hand. In the foreground, circle shaped professional photo of the speaker, a light skinned bespectacled figure in black, arms folded. Text reads: “ anthropology, and social change visiting scholar series presents the building blocks of a New World talks on Rova Revolution February 9-11 530 to 7:30 PM free Namaste Hall 1453 Mission St., San Francisco three talks! Questions: smaccracken@ciis.edu Reimar Heider Feb 9 a series of concepts: surprising twists Feb 10 building blocks: democratic, confederalism, Jineolojî and the queen of sciences Feb 11 construction of a new world: organize, organized, autonomy, education, and self-defense

Set reminders to tune in live: m.youtube.com/@anthciis/st...

1/4 The Building Blocks of a New World
“Öcalan expresses a series of concepts that in the 21st century are increasingly becoming the building blocks for the political construction of a new world.” —⁠Antonio Negri

Andrej Grubačić, founding Chair of the Department of Anthropology and Social Change at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and founding member of the Academy of Social Science, issued a statement and video message in solidarity with Rojava.

4/4 …In this chaotic transition between historical systems, the confederal idea of communal democracy poses a challenge that the "civilized world" seek to extinguish. We must mobilize to defend this project of direct democracy and confederal internationalism.”

3/4 …Democratic confederalism represents a "rupture" of its own—a compelling alternative to the barbarism of state and capital. This is why "integration as a source of subordination" is being forced upon the people of Northern Syria…

2/4 …In such a precarious moment, the destruction of any meaningful alternative is a priority for the status quo. The war against Rojava was never truly about resources; it is a war against an alternative to the nation-state…

Attack on Rojava is an attack on hope As a result of various international agreements and directives behind the scenes, the Syrian transitional government of Ahmed al-Sharaa and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have declared war on the Democ...

1/4 “We are indeed in the midst of a systemic transition. The world of endless accumulation—the civilization we call capitalism—is approaching its demise. We are inching toward a tributary system defined by political accumulation and blunt force…

english.anf-news.com/news/attack-...

YouTube video by Academy of Social Science Targol Mesbah's Speech at the Academy Inauguration

See the full video, here: m.youtube.com/watch?v=fyHg...

Curious about our MA+PhD in activist anthropology? Sign up for the Tuesday 5pm Info Session, here: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr...
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📹Prof. Targol Mesbah for the inauguration of Academy of Social Science

I was invited to deliver the keynote speech for a three-day conference on Michael Burawoy.
Another verse of a long goodbye to my dearest colleague, friend, and comrade…
Thanks to Portuguese sociologists for organizing this conference.
Details of the conference 🧵

Call for Papers: The Greyzone of the Green Transition - Environmental Inequalities in Central and Eastern Europe - ecoJust home The Greyzone of the Green Transition is a conference dedicated to advancing conversations on environmental justice in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It brings together senior , doctoral, and postdo...

CFP: "The Greyzone of the Green Transition – Environmental Inequalities in Central and Eastern Europe." International conference in Romania, May 2026. Keynotes by Stefania Barca, Erik Swyngedouw, and Andrej Grubačić.
#envhist #envhum

The History of Women’s Studies Is a History of Conflict Women’s studies programs in the United States are threatened by authoritarian pressure. For example, the Ohio legislature restricts how marriage and abortion can be presented in the college ...

“Contradicting this idea that feminism is no longer relevant, gendered rhetoric is now a primary mode of bolstering state power. Insidiously, feminist language is being reappropriated to justify the erasure of feminist ideas and feminist history.”

“A Second Enlightenment”: Greg Grandin on Latin America, the United States, and the Creation of Social-Democratic Modernity “My books try to explain a tension.”

“Gaitán’s murder is the climax of the book, a death foretold, an event so compressed with hope that its explosion sent historical shrapnel in all directions.”

In a new interview at PB, Greg Grandin discusses the execution of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán.
www.publicbooks.org/a-second-enl...

To understand the uprising and crisis in Indonesia, here is our selection of articles from ALR: labourreview.org/indonesias-u...

Front cover of a book titled Inventions of a Present by Fredric Jameson

Carolyn Lesjak reviews Fredric Jameson in NLR 154:

‘In contrast to “the private lives of currently fashionable autofiction”, the works discussed here “try to write the collective, or at least register the crisis of the individual attempting to do so.”’

newleftreview.org/issues/ii154...

Noise, Vibration, and Dust: A Wildcat Strike in Armenia’s Largest Mine | Long-Haul Mag This summer, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) brought a strike of running trades workers at Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CPKC, or just “CP”) t...

longhaulmag.com/khudoyan-noi...

Curious about mostly online our activist Anthropology MAs+PhDs?

Sign up for the Sept 5, 4pm Pacific Time Info Session with our founding department chair, Andrej Grubačić: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr...

Train in Anthropology informed by methodologies from Anarchism to Marxism.

Join an academic department with a distinctive commitment to solidarity with populations and struggle, critiques of capitalist and colonial dominance, and the nation state! Graduate empowered to help build a better world we all know as possible! 2/2

Anthropology Degrees - Info Session 6/30/2025 | CIIS Attend an info session on June 30, 2025 to learn about the Anthropology & Social Change online Ph.D. and M.A. degree programs at CIIS in San Francisco.

Interested in our low-residency MA+PhD in activist Anthropology? Sign up for the Info Session, June 30, 5pm Pacific Time: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr... 1/2

Image of a fit Caucasian masc person decked out in matching rainbow pants, blazer, umbrella, sunglasses, and necktie over a bare chest, making an exuberant “let’s party” gesture.

News photo of the anti-ICE rioters in L.A. ducking LAPD teargas behind a makeshift barricade made of repurposed pink metal park furniture.

Brands Me and my
marketing to gay friends:
gays:

…readings but include multiple modes of engagement that reflect a commitment to learning outside systems of domination. This will most certainly include some unlearning as well.” 8/8

…on anti-blackness, The Standing Rock curriculum, and recent material from the Abolitionist Collective, and others. Students will also research and produce curricula that are relevant for communities where they are located. Note that curricula are not limited to… 7/8

Whether or not the university education system on the whole will reinvent itself accordingly, we can draw on its resources to learn with and contribute to community based political education. In this seminar we will read such existing curricula as We Charge Genocide Again… 6/8

…intervening in the university curriculum was to save lives. We could say that higher education is again (or still) in crisis, a crisis of legitimacy and relevance for large portions of the world population. 5/8

From the Future Pedagogies Course:
“Nesbit Crutchfield, member of the 1968 San Francisco State Universitys student strike which led to the creation of Black Studies and Ethnic Studies university departments in the United States, recalls that their primary reason for… 4/8

If higher education is in crisis, we take that as an opportunity to shed destructive assumptions and to re-imagine horizons of possibility from the ground up. Join our info session to learn more! 3/8

Sign up for our next info session, April 15, 5:30pm pacific time: www.ciis.edu/events/anthr...
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Join a department-wide commitment to solidarity with populations, training in theory generated by social movements, and a singular emphasis on nonstate spaces. 2/8

Got a political project with populations in struggle? Interested in a low-residency MA+PhD that seeks to unlearn as well as to learn, pushing outside the limitations and norms of higher education as imagined within a colonial and capitalist framework? 1/8