02/17/2026
Please join us for the keynote portion of our celebration marking 50 years since the founding of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSW) program at Wayne State University. Centered on the theme Past, Present, and Futures, the day highlights the program's work on campus and the evolution and expansion of the field of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. Founded through grassroots organizing in 1976, the GSW program has remained a vital site for scholarship, teaching, and engagement grounded in feminist, q***r, and intersectional perspectives.
RSVP to Keynote lecture here.
Andrea Ritchie, “Abolition, Feminism, and Anti-Authoritarian Organizing”
About Andrea Ritchie
Andrea Ritchie is a Black le***an immigrant survivor who has been documenting, organizing, advocating, litigating, and agitating around policing and criminalization of Black women, girls, trans, and gender nonconforming people for the past three decades. She is the author of Practicing New Worlds: Abolition & Emergent Strategies, Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color and co-author of Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women, Q***r (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States, and the forthcoming No More Police: A Case for Abolition. She co-founded the Interrupting Criminalization initiative with Mariame Kaba, as well as the In Our Names Network, a network of over 20 organizations working to end police violence against Black women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people. She currently hosts the Invest/Divest Learning Communities at the Community Resource Hub, and supports dozens of organizations across the US working to divest from policing and invest in community safety. She has authored numerous research reports, articles, and opinion pieces on policing, criminalization, mass incarceration and immigration enforcement.
Following Ritchie's talk there is a reception, starting at 5:00pm, in the Center for Gender and Sexuality, providing space to connect across campus and celebrate the ongoing work of GSW with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners.
