In this talk, I attend to the incredible proliferation of Black Italian movements—projects that address the Italian nation-state and the wider Black diaspora by disrupting the link between whiteness and Italianness and challenging the interlocking racist violences of Fortress Europe. What are the possibilities and limitations of these emergent mobilizations? What new formations are possible, and what older ones are resuscitated in this attempt to challenge the racial borders of Italy and of Europe? I am interested in opening up discussions of the so-called migrant “crisis” by focusing on a previously invisible generation of Black people who were born or raised in Europe but have been thrust into the same racist, xenophobic political climate as the immigrants and refugees who are arriving in Europe from across the Mediterranean Sea from the African continent. How are these Black Italians now actively remaking what it means to be Italian and to be European today? To answer these questions, I trace not only mobilizations for national citizenship, but also the more capacious, transnational Black diasporic possibilities that emerge when activists confront the ethical and political limits of citizenship as a means for securing meaningful, lasting racial justice—formations that are centered on shared critiques of the racial state, as well as shared histories of racial capitalism and colonialism.

In addition to profound health and mortality risks for people experiencing homelessness, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted services and compounded pre-existing hardships. California’s signature programs responding to the pandemic, Project Roomkey and Homekey, substantially and quickly expanded capacity for sheltering and housing people experiencing homelessness. However, localities participated in the two programs very differently, making their impacts varied between regions. Drawing on a mixture of data from across the state, I examine how local implementation of these programs varied by the organizational structure of local homelessness systems.

Third-trimester abortion is more expensive, difficult to obtain, and stigmatized than earlier abortion. In the post-Dobbs landscape, it is also likely to become more common as pregnant people face substantial barriers to obtaining abortion care promptly and are delayed into the third trimester. Advocating for a context-based—rather than individual reason-focused—framework, Dr. Kimport identifies who needs third-trimester abortions, their pathways to care, and what this means for the prospect of reproductive justice.