Ask a Feminist: A Conversation with Cathy J. Cohen on Black Lives Matter, Feminism, and Contemporary Activism (original) (raw)

2016, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

I had the pleasure of having this conversation with Cathy J. Cohen, the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science and chair of political science at the University of Chicago, in late 2015. Cohen's work, both academically and as an activist, has inspired my own, particularly in terms of making connections between black feminist theory, social movements, and issues of race and racism in the United States. Cohen is the principal investigator of two major social change projects: the Black Youth Project (BYP100) and the Mobilization, Change and Political and Civic Engagement Project. Her books, Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (2010) and The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (1999), have offered important interventions in scholarship on race and politics. She is also the coeditor, with Kathleen B. Jones and Joan C. Tronto, of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (1997). Since the publication of my book, Black Celebrity, Racial Politics, and the Press: Framing Dissent (Jackson 2014), I have been particularly compelled by the use of technology by racial justice activists like the women who started #BlackLivesMatter. My recent collaborative work with Brooke Foucault Welles, "Hijacking #myNYPD: Social Media Dissent and Networked Counterpublics" (Jackson and Welles 2015) and "#Ferguson Is Everywhere: Initiators in Emerging Counterpublic Networks" (Jackson and Welles 2016), has illustrated that everyday citizens-particularly young women and people of color-are having a very real impact on national narratives of equality and citizenship. In the following conversation, Cohen and I discuss the potentials for feminist theory in racial justice movements, the unique ways in which race and gender intersect in state violence, challenges for feminist academics of color engaged in activism, and the shape of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. You can follow us on Twitter at @cathyjcohen and @sjjphd, respectively. Sarah Jackson (SJ): I'd like to begin by asking what role you see feminism, and feminist scholarship in particular, playing in today's racial