A poet, a public artist, and an activist scholar, Kendra is Director of the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center; co-director of the NYC Climate Justice Hub; publisher of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative; and a co-editorial director of Women’s Studies Quarterly. She led the Andrew W. Mellon Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research from 2014-2024.
Social Justice and Public Scholarship (IDS 79600/ANTH 71200/DHUM 78000/MALS 78500/PUBL 70200) introduces students to the myriad ways in which public scholarship and social justice intersect. Interdisciplinary by design, students are introduced to the work of scholars, artists, and activists who are committed to the vision of a more just world through their community-engaged, and/or public-facing work. The course is one of two required courses for the new Public Scholarship Certificate Program.
In Spring 2026, the course will be organized around JustMedia, an open-source archive and media literacy tool for the movement to end mass incarceration and achieve abolition as a case study. Throughout the semester, students will develop the groundwork for an effective campaign, a public research project, or a popular education module that brings one media object in the archive to life in all its irreducible complexity.
Kendra Sullivan has produced public art addressing water access and equity issues in cities around the world and has published her writing on art, environment, and engagement widely–her most recent op-ed in City Limits calls on civic leaders to help make CUNY the climate justice university of New York. She is the co-founder of the Sunview Luncheonette, a cooperative arts venue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; and a member of Mare Liberum, an eco-art collective. Her books include Zero Point Dream Poems (Doublecross Press) and Reps (Ugly Duckling Presse).
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About
Kendra Sullivan
NYC CJH Co-Director, CUNY
Kendra Sullivan is a public artist, an activist-scholar, and a poet. Sullivan is Director of the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she leads the Andrew W. Mellon Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research and co-directs the NYC Climate Justice Hub. She is the publisher of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative and the co-editorial director of Women’s Studies Quarterly. Kendra has produced public art addressing water access and equity issues in cities around the world and has published her writing on art, ecology, and engagement widely. She is the co-founder of the Sunview Luncheonette, a cooperative arts venue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; and a member of Mare Liberum, an eco-art collective. Her books include Zero Point Dream Poems (Doublecross Press) and Reps (Ugly Duckling Presse). Taken together, her art, writing, research and advocacy advance public scholarship in graduate education from a justice-forward framework.
Email: [email protected]