This video features a special pre-conference panel to the For the Public Good Conference, held on March 28, 2014 at Barnard College, co-sponsored by For the Public Good. The panel is comprised of Kate D’Adamo, Penelope Saunders, Reina Gossett, Amber Hollibaugh, Sydnie Mosley, and Tiloma Jayasinghe, and was moderated by Janet Jakobsen.

How do contemporary social conditions affect activism on behalf of gender and sexual justice in New York City? Have economic shifts since the financial crisis of 2008 changed possibilities for activist undertakings? How can we support efforts for social justice under these new conditions? What kind of new work is being undertaken?

In Fall 2013, Janet Jakobsen and Elizabeth Bernstein, organizers of the Gender, Justice, and Neoliberalisms research group, led a seminar on “Activisms” that matched students with groups that are doing gender and sexuality based activism in New York City. As a preface to the For the Public Good conference, speakers working on a range of issues—sex work, reproductive justice, community based art, sexuality, domestic violence, and poverty—discuss the effects of economic conditions on their work, the intricacies and impact of their labor, and their experiences providing students with a form of applied education that could benefit grasroots campaigns.