SSSP Global Division Meeting Minutes 14th July 2025 (Online Meeting) - Beginning at 5:05pm - Announcement of New Chair – There was an election – 6 or 7 people ran, Beatriz Padilla won. We might have another short meeting at end of August or September to meet Beatriz since she was unable to make it today due to travel (July is a hard time for many to attend meetings, perhaps another meeting can be organized in September or October). - Introductions of attendees: o Caitlin Schroering o Álvaro Germán Torres Mora o Chetna Khandelwal o Assata Zerai o John Michael Ryan o Derek Richardson o Natasha Israt Kabir - Caitlin and Derek will be attending the meeting in person (and others?) - Award Winner Announcements o Book and Graduate Student Paper awards: * Graduate Student Paper Award Winner: “Longing for the State: Women Grassroots Activists and Local State-building in Colombia,” Maria Ximena Davila, The University of Texas at Austin * Book Award Winner: In the Shadow of the Global North: Journalism in Postcolonial Africa, j. Siguru Wahutu, Cambridge University Press, 2024 * Book Award Honorable Mention: Virgin Crossing Borders: Feminist Resistance and Solidarity in Translation, Emek Ergun, University of Illinois Press, 2023 * Book Award Honorable Mention: Insurgent Communities: How Protests Create a Filipino Diaspora, Sharon M. Quinsaat, The University of Chicago Press, 2024 - Caitlin has received emails stating it would be nice to find new ways of connecting, especially online, given new visa restrictions and complications with travels to the USA o Caitlin will communicate this suggestion to the new chair - Natasha joined the meeting – student representative of the Board - Link to where newsletter will be posted tonight [it is posted now] - https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/1239 - Álvaro was editing the newsletter – expresses gratitude towards members who shared publications. Graduate student spotlight and winners of awards will be shared in newsletter. Álvaro will not be in Chicago. He will be continuing as newsletter editor another two year term. - Budget updates from Caitlin: o Approved budget for this year - https://www.sssp1.org/file/2025/2025_&_2026_Budget_Requests.pdf o Global Division received the standard funds of $600 o SSSP still in the process of merging divisions so some appear to have more money because they have merged o Moving forward, if anyone has thoughts on where money should go we can reach out to the incoming chair. o Currently, funds are dedicated to - Division sponsored reception at annual meeting, newsletter editor stipend, and book award winner’s monetary prize. o Monetary prize for graduate student award winner comes from outside Global Division budget. - This year there will be two SSSP division meetings online and then one meeting in person that the outgoing and incoming chair will attend. - Mostly the current meeting focuses on ideas for sessions for next year – the other 3 meetings are to finalise session ideas. - Ideas for division to gain membership, increase participation etc. can be shared in current meeting. - How are we relevant in the world today? How do we implement the praxis piece of our mission? It’s difficult given preoccupations and how busy everyone is and various time zones that our division members reside within. - Questions that came up that Caitlin will be bringing up in SSSP meetings: o online participation options for people who can no longer travel to the USA for the foreseeable future o Assata – it’s a larger conversation SSSP needs to have – the program committee is drafting their report and one of their recommendations is – how do we think through enhancing participation of colleagues around the world (hybrid or lower conference fees or lower membership fees). Program committee is entirely from US but recommendations should come from those affected as well. Would SSSP global division be providing recommendations? o Caitlin – meeting minutes are shared online but I have not been made aware of an opportunity to share recommendations o John Michael Ryan resides in Peru and would be happy to provide insights into how international scholars can participate with fewer barriers, including financial support. o Natasha – should we make a platform to communicate with other members of global division? Even as a travel recipient awardee (receiving $1,000), she is unable to participate in SSSP without sharing accommodation costs. There should be a concrete platform where we can communicate with other colleagues attending the meetings to share costs. o Caitlin - Other conferences have platforms like that but I’m not aware of any o Assata (in chat) – there is a way to request a roommate, there is a deadline for that which has passes o Natasha - We can have a platform like whova or any apps like that and having different section of concerns o Assata (in chat) - When registering for the annual meeting, you will have the option to participate in our roommate matching opportunity. Roommate requests must be submitted by June 30. The Administrative Office will send you a list with contact information for those who are interested in sharing a room on July 1. While we are happy to connect you with other registrants, please note that the Society will not vet anyone on this list and cannot make recommendations. If you have preferences for specific roommates (e.g., sharing a room with a fellow student), you will need to seek out that information directly from the registrant, as SSSP does not place roommates together.https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/1017/Annual_Meeting_FAQ/ * Caitlin – this is an issue that can be easily rectified since this system exists—just need to do a more comprehensive job sharing information so that people are aware of it o There’ll be a series of meetings that Caitlin and new chai will be participating in and we can communicate anything else we’d like to say to her - More social media accounts (Instagram, twitter, BlueSky etc.) – right now we have a Facebook account where big updates are posted but it’s not very active. Having a couple people volunteer to do social media work would be good. If folks have ideas about this – Caitlin will make note of them to share with incoming chair. - Social media is a push from SSSP for greater engagement – it won’t solve everything but it can help. - There are questionable components of social media that we should consider as critical scholars in 2025. Last 20 mins: - Right now we’re not thinking about who is organising sessions – just brainstorming ideas for sessions - Broader ideas are appreciated - Broad (or narrow) ideas for co-sponsoring sessions: o Thematic session - Making life in Death Worlds o Intersections of imperialism and environment could be interesting o Perhaps a methods-oriented session on doing research in global/transnational contexts? How do you interrogate colonization and imperialism with our methodological toolkits, especially with travel-related barriers and crises complicating things like ethnographic fieldwork and the distribution of large surveys? o Critical Dialogue – “Shrinking spaces of Academia” - Crisis in Academia (Critical Dialogues are sessions are composed of short (5 minute) presentations by up to eight authors. These sessions encourage conversation and audience participation.) – are we going to bring in legal experts – there is no support from SSSP for international students facing legal issues. Anyone on F1 status is facing the same issue. How can the panel be made more informative if it’s going to be formalised? * Virtual Townhall could be another option especially since it would involve voices of scholars who cannot attend in person * Individual divisions make these decisions not SSSP. We are only represented by people who are members of SSSP. * Assata - We can see if SSSP wants to elevate Natasha’s idea to a plenary, sponsored by next year’s program committee. - More information about sessions: o https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/1044/2026_Annual_Meeting - Assata – it would be good to reach out to other divisions and propose ideas for co-sponsorship o Caitlin – last year we did an excel sheet that worked pretty well, this happens in the chair meetings Concluding: - Caitlin will follow up with Assata about the session on shrinking spaces in academia - Hopefully the division will continue to be a space for critical scholarship and praxis.