Silvia Federici

Join us for a lecture by renowned scholar and activist Silvia Federici on the connections between war, social reproduction, and ongoing anti-capitalist feminist struggle. The presentation builds on Federici’s decades-long research in political philosophy, feminist theory, cultural studies, and economics. Free and open to the public, this talk will explore critical concepts that continue to inform contemporary art discourse.

Silvia Federici (b. 1942, Parma, Italy) is one of the most influential theorists of her generation. In 1972, she co-founded the International Feminist Collective (IFC), leading its New York Committee. The IFC launched the Wages for Housework campaign in the US and abroad, appropriating labor union tactics such as the general strike to draw attention to gendered, unwaged care work and advocate for women’s healthcare, reproductive rights, and sex work. Its efforts established precedent for current debates on the socio-sexual division of labor, sexuality as work, stratified power relations among women, and the intersectionality of these struggles. Federici has been active in the anti-globalization movement and the anti-death penalty movement. Her published works include Revolution at Point Zero (September 2012); Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (2004); A Thousand Flowers: Social Struggles Against Structural Adjustment in African Universities (2000, co-editor); and Enduring Western Civilization: The Construction of Western Civilization and its “Others” (1994, editor). Federici is Professor Emerita of Political Philosophy and International Studies at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.