Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you a conversation with Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Black feminist theorist and theoretical physicist and Selma James, long-time feminist activist and Wages for Housework co-founder, to discuss, "Our Time is Now," an anthology by Selma James and the legacies of inter-generational feminism.


Selma James is a women's rights and anti racist campaigner and author. From 1958 to 1962 she worked with C.L.R. James in the movement for West Indian federation and independence. In 1972 she co founded the International Wages for Housework Campaign, and in 2000 helped launch the Global Women's Strike whose strategy for change is Invest in Caring, Not Killing. She coined the word unwaged, which has since entered the English language. In the 1970s she was the first spokeswoman of the English Collective of Prostitutes. She is a founding member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. She co authored the classic The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community, which launched the domestic labor debate.

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women's and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her research in theoretical physics focuses on cosmology, neutron stars, and dark matter. She additionally does research in Black feminist science, technology, and society studies. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is also a columnist for New Scientist and Physics World. Nature recognized her as one of 10 people who shaped science in 2020, and Essence magazine has recognized her as one of 15 Black Women Who Are Paving the Way in STEM and Breaking Barriers. A cofounder of Particles for Justice, she received the 2017 LGBT+ Physicists Acknowledgement of Excellence Award for her contributions to improving conditions for marginalized people in physics and the 2021 American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award for her contributions to particle cosmology, including co-founding Particles for Justice. Her first book The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred received the 2021 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the science and technology category and was named a Best Book of 2021 by Publishers Weekly, Smithsonian Magazine, and Kirkus. It has been a finalist for several awards including the 2022 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. The Disordered Cosmos was also longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize in Caribbean Literature. Originally from East L.A., she divides her time between the New Hampshire Seacoast and Cambridge, Massachusetts.