Scholar-in-Residence

Shobha Rao moved to the United States from India at the age of seven. After receiving undergraduate training in biomedical engineering, she earned a law degree, and for many years worked as a legal advocate for victims of domestic violence, mainly immigrant women. She is the author of An Unrestored Woman, a short story collection, and the novels Indian Country and Girls Burn Brighter which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award and the Goodreads Choice Awards. Her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories. Rao is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and was a Grace Paley Teaching Fellow at The New School. 

Shanelle Matthews was the university's inaugural activist-in-residence. Beginning in 2017, she spent ten semesters at The New School teaching courses such as Black Resistance: 1960–Present, Critical Theory and Social Justice, and Resistance Narratives from 21st Century Social Movements. Part of her residency was at Lang's Office of Civic Engagement and Social Justice, with its focus on bridging the gap between practice-based social justice work in communities and the rigorous research taking place in academia. In her time at CESJ, she partnered with social leaders across New York City in conducting skills-building workshops designed to introduce students to practices they could implement in their organizing and activism. She also moderated a panel discussion with members of the Black Panther Party. A self-described “part social science iconoclast, part feminist theory maven,” Matthews is the former director of Communications for the Black Lives Matter Global Network, to which she brought her years of experience in journalism, litigation, rapid response, and campaign communications. Learn more about Shanelle Matthews. 

Diana Goetsch is an award-winning poet, essayist, journalist, and author. Her work includes the acclaimed memoir This Body I Wore and the American Scholar column "Life in Transition." Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry, the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Best American Poetry. Her honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Yaddo. Goetsch's ongoing Actually Writing class has attracted a worldwide following. Goetsch was a Grace Paley Teaching Fellow at Eugene Lang College. 

Dr. Gilligan's first book, In a Different Voice, is described by Harvard Press as "the little book that started a revolution." TIME magazine named her one of the 25 Most Influential Americans. Her Lang residency was titled Listening to Voices Listening to Gender.

Dr. bell hooks (née Gloria Watkins) was an internationally recognized scholar, poet, author, and radical thinker. Dr. hooks' writings covered a broad range of topics, including gender, race, teaching, and contemporary culture. She saw these topics as interconnected and linked in the production of systems of oppression and class domination. During her residency, Dr. hooks engaged in enlightening, powerful, and lively public dialogues with leading intellectuals and scholars.