Silvia Federici papers (Ms.2017.023)

This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Silvia Federici, Italian-American scholar and activist; co-founder of the International Feminist Collective; and organizer with the International Wages for Housework campaign. Federici served as Professor Emerita of Social Sciences at Hofstra University where her research focused around questions of colonialism, capital punishment, immigration and emigration, globalization and global market inequality, food politics, elder care and capitalism, and academic freedom in Africa. The collection documents Federici's academic career, personal life, and feminist activism and is composed of biographical materials, correspondence, special project materials, writings, photographs, and printed materials. The collection spans from 1922-2020 (bulk 1970-2017) and is arranged into 8 series.

Series 1, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT, 1991 - 2019, includes an application for promotion to professor at Hofstra University, flyers for lectures and protests, interviews of Federici, mementos from friends, and programs for conferences attended by Federici. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 2, CORRESPONDENCE, 1971-2018, contains personal and professional correspondence from various senders including Alessandro Scotto, Elisa Servin, Wamba Dia Wamba, George Caffentzis, Federici's Husband, and Federici's students. Topics include Papua New Guinea, human rights in Kenya, Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa, and Wages for Housework. This series is arranged alphabetically by sender or recipient's first name.

Series 3, SPECIAL PROJECTS, 1971-2018, is arranged into 3 subseries: Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa, Radical Philosophy Association's Anti-Death Penalty Project, and Wages for Housework.

Series 3, Subseries 1, Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa, 1985-2014, highlights Federici's work for the organization that she and her partner, George Caffentzis, formed in the early 1990s. The Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa (CAFA) was an initiative of North American and African academics, most of whom were forced from teaching positions in African universities due to escalating government repression, declining pay, or some combination of both. CAFA helped bring attention to the underlying causes in the structural adjustment programs of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the defunding of universities, ending subsidies to students, and in general commodifying education. CAFA argued that the assault on the African educational system was key to a new neoliberal division of labor internationally and to processes of financial and intellectual recolonization. Materials include articles, newsletters, and print material from Africa and Asia and the Association for Concerned Africa Scholars. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 3, Subseries 2, Radical Philosophy Association's Anti-Death Penalty Project, 1997-2000, notes Federici's work on this campaign she established to critique capital punishment and abolish the death penalty in the United States and internationally. This subseries contains clippings, event flyers, newsletters, and related syllabi. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 3, Subseries 3, Wages for Housework, 1971-2016, captures Federici's work as a co-founder of the International Feminist Collective – a global feminist social movement that began in 1972 in Padua, Italy. The collective was a driving force behind the International Wages for Housework Campaign, which was formed to raise awareness of how housework and childcare are the base of all industrial work and to stake the claim that these unavoidable tasks should be compensated as paid wage labor. Materials include clippings, newsletters, and print material specific to Wages for Housework such as "All Work and No Pay: Women, Housework, and the Wages Due," and "Prime Time: An Independent Feminist Journal."

Also included are documents and print material related to Lotta Femminista, the first major feminist organization to form in the Trivento region of Italy in 1971. Lotta Femminista would coordinate the initial meetings of the International Feminist Collective in 1972 which formed the basis for the Wages for Housework movement internationally. Following a split in 1973, one segment of the group would adapt the program of the Wages for Housework international campaign and rename itself Lotta Feminista per il salario al lavoro domestico (Feminist struggle for wages for housework). The group organized many important protests and initiatives in campaigns for abortion access, against sexual assault and domestic violence and to demand pay for various forms of unwaged reproductive labor across Italy throughout the 1970s. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 4, TEACHING, 1987-2011, includes syllabi, exam questions, and lecture notes for various courses created and taught by Federici. Courses of note include "Feminist Perspectives in the Third World," "Radical Thought," and "African Contributions to Western Civilization." This series is arranged alphabetically by course title.

Series 5, WRITINGS AND RELATED, 1970-2015, is arranged into 2 subseries, Writings by Federici and Writings by others.

Series 5, subseries 1, WRITINGS BY FEDERICI, 1970-2015, includes typed and annotated drafts of articles, books, and talks, by Federici, as well as editorship files and personal writings. Titles include "Commons Against and Beyond Capitalism," "Caliban and the Witch," and "Why Feminists Should Oppose Capital Punishment." This series as arranged alphabetically by project type then by title.

Series 5, subseries 2, WRITINGS BY OTHERS, 1970-2009, includes typed and annotated drafts of articles by authors such as Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Maria Mies, and Ariel Salleh. Titles include "I am a Woman and a Human: a Marxist-Feminist Critique of Intersectionality Theory," "Notes on Dialectics: Hegel and Marxism," and "Women, Food, and Global Trade." This subseries is arranged alphabetically by title of work.

Series 6, PHOTOGRAPHS, 1970-2017, includes photos of Federici's family and international trips as well as demonstrations and special events. This series is arranged alphabetically by subject.

Series 7, PRINT MATERIAL, 1973-2020, contains bound/published books, journals, and pamphlets by Federici and other feminist authors and organizations. Titles include "'Care Work' and the Commons," "Midnight Notes Collective," and "Women of Europe." This series is arranged alphabetically by title.

Series 8, OVERSIZE, 1922-2019, contains oversize newspapers and posters related to feminist activism and presentations by Federici. Titles include "The Debt Economy and the Production of the Commons," "The Marxist Education Project," and "Student Debt: The Bigger Picture." This series is arranged alphabetically by title.