Lead Instructor Karen Attiah is an award-winning journalist and editor, a graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs ('12) and Northwestern University. A former adjunct lecturer at Columbia, she brings global expertise and academic rigor to her work at the intersection of race, media, and international affairs.

Attiah is a columnist for the Washington Post, and holds an honorary doctorate in journalism from Dickinson College.

How RSS Started

Resistance Summer School emerged in the wake of Columbia University’s decision to cancel the original graduate-level course—at a time when teaching about race, imperialism, and global power is increasingly contested.

Rather than retreat, Attiah turned the moment into an opportunity: to build a parallel structure for radical learning, rooted in community, accessibility, and intellectual freedom.

What began as institutional erasure became an act of creation—and a blueprint for liberatory education beyond the academy.