Joy James is the Ebenezer Fitch Professor of the Humanities at Williams College.

James is author of: Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics; Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals; Resisting State Violence: Radicalism, Gender and Race in U.S. Culture. Her edited books include: Warfare in the American Homeland; The New Abolitionists: (Neo) Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings; Imprisoned Intellectuals; States of Confinement; The Black Feminist Reader (co-edited with TD Sharpley-Whiting); and The Angela Y. Davis Reader. James is completing a book on the prosecution of 20th-century interracial rape cases, tentatively titled “Memory, Shame & Rage.” She has contributed articles and book chapters to journals and anthologies addressing feminist and critical race theory, democracy, and social justice.

She is the recipient of grants, fellowships or awards from: the Fletcher Foundation; the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities; the Rockefeller Foundation; the Bellagio Fellowship; the Aaron Diamond Foundation/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; the Ford Foundation; and the Gustavus Myers Human Rights Award. For more on Dr. James’ work, visit: https://sites.williams.edu/jjames/ 

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Ominira (omi) mars is a black, queer anarcho-abolitionist, doula, writer, and disruptor. Descendants of southern poor/lower class disruptors; they work exclusively from a black southern/rural and anti-carceral epistemology and center communities affected by the war on drugs and the prison industrial complex. Omi is a doctoral dropout seeking to materialize their refusal of a life outside of a reliance on violent settler-colonial, anti-black institutions. They are the founder of the Dunbar Creek Collective; an abolitionist collective of those committed to anti-carceral death, despair, & grief work and they organize against the non-profit industrial complex and academic violence. Their work and writings have been described as revolutionary, (afro)futuristic, and deeply critical.

As Senior Vice President for Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice and Chief Diversity Officer, Melanie Hart focuses on elevating the strategies, values and practices of equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice across The New School. Melanie brings to this work a deep connection to the university and deep experience in social justice-based institutional management and change. Melanie is an alum of the university’s MA program in Public and Urban Policy at the Milano School, where she is presently completing her PhD. She received her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and practiced law as a corporate and securities attorney before returning to public service in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors and with city agencies. Most recently, she served as the Deputy Commissioner for Workforce Development at the New York City Department of Small Business Services. Before that, she was the Executive Vice President of Community Programs and Development at the New York City Housing Authority.