On May 13, Harvard scholar Durba Mitra will be presenting the 2026 Acker-Morgen Lecture, "What if Gathering Together Liberated Us?" Mitra is the Richard B. Wolf Associate Professor in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University.
Mitra’s scholarship brings together feminist political thought, sexuality studies, and global intellectual history. Her new book, The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism (Princeton University Press, 2026) describes how Third World women seized the means of knowledge production to fight against rising authoritarianism and imagine a future freer than our present. Her first book, Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonian Origins of Modern Social Thought (Prinston University Press, 2020), describes how British authorities and Indian intellectuals developed ideas about deviant female sexuality to control and organize modern society in India.
The CSWS Acker-Morgen Memorial Lectureship honors two powerful feminist voices, CSWS founding director Joan Acker and longtime Center director Sandra Morgen, both of whom passed away in 2016. This annual lecture series commemorates their legacies by bringing to the University of Oregon campus renowned feminist scholars who work on issues of economic justice and gender equity – issues that were very near and dear to both Joan and Sandi.
The 2026 Acker-Morgen Lecture will be held 5–7 p.m. May 13 in the Ford Lecture Hall, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, 1430 Johnson Lane, Eugene. Event registration is requested.