Project History

Project co-coordinators, Serena Chaudhry and Prasanna Poornachandra, birthed the concept of Re-Drawing Resistance at the International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) conference in 2005. Two years later, in the fall of 2007, the sixty-piece (60) exhibit was assembled and opened at The Queens Museum of Art (QMA) in New York City. After the QMA, the exhibit traveled across town to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York (CUNY). Finally, the exhibit landed in Vermont where it adorned the Dudley H. Davis Center at the University of Vermont.

In 2009, Re-Drawing Resistance launched its second tour which opened again at the Queens Museum of Art. The exhibit then traveled to Boston College where the Women’s Resource Center in collaboration with multiple student organizations, hosted an opening reception for the exhibit. The exhibit’s final destination was Toronto, Canada where Women’s Health in Women’s Hands, a community health center, hosted the exhibit in collaboration with the University of Toronto School of Social Work. The reception included a DJ, spoken word and theatrical performance. 

After one of the exhibit openings, a participant shared, “We hide so many feelings in our hearts and say nothing, but when I paint and show my fears and feelings through art, that is so effective….this exhibit shows that we are a group of women who had no source to channel our pain into but found something that allows us to protest for freedom and independence.” This is the impact Re-Drawing Resistance has on women! 

2010 Planning Team

Serena Chaudhry, LMSW, MPH (USA)                                               

Serena Chaudhry is a public health social worker engaged in advocacy around issues of social justice, forced migration and trauma. She has curated three social justice oriented exhibits including: GIRL POWER: Picture Us Powerful; Afghanistan: A Different Perspective; and most recently Coming Home: (http://itspnyc.org/african_refuge/cominghome.html). Serena recently served as the Executive Director of the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington, Vermont and a clinician social worker at the Community Counseling Center and the Boston Trauma Center. She serves as a Technical Advisor to African Refuge, a program of the International Trauma Studies Program at the Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University. 

Prasanna Poornachandra, PhD (India)                                  

Prasanna Poornachandra, is the founder trustee and CEO of the International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC), an organization working for women and child survivors of domestic violence. She holds a doctoral degree in Criminology from the University of Madras, Chennai. She also has to her credit a post-graduate diploma in ‘Victimology and Victim Assistance’ from the Tokiwa University, Japan in collaboration with the World Society of Victimology, USA. Working in the field of violence against women for the last 6 years, she has a vast experience in Crisis Intervention, especially in the area of Domestic Violence. She has been trained at various organizations working in the area of violence against women in the US. 

Anita Kumar, MA  (New York City, New York)                                           

Anita Kumar is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at The University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. Her research examines the psychological impact ofdomestic violence against South Asian immigrant women living in New York City. She is working with the South Asian Task Force at Sanctuary for Families in New York City to strengthen their services and better meet the social and cultural needs of Sanctuary's South Asian clients. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, Anita was a research associate at Amnesty International USA where she worked on a health and human rights project investigating maternal health in the US. Anita holds a Masters in Visual Anthropology. She is currently the film editor for Visual Anthropology Review.

Bushra Husain, MSW  (New York City, New York)                            

Bushra Husain is a Non-Residential Counselor & South Asian Community Specialist at Sanctuary for Families, the largest nonprofit in New York State dedicated exclusively to serving domestic violence victims and their children. Bushra conducts culturally appropriate empowerment counseling to South Asian clients in Urdu, Hindi, and English and facilitates weekly South Asian support group focusing on cultural and social roles specific to domestic violence in the South Asian Community. Bushra cultivated a Human Rights Education Programme for over 600 schools around Pakistan and has also worked with the Edhi Foundation Women’s shelter in Pakistan. Bushra holds a Master of Science in Social Work.

Rupaleem Bhuyan, PhD (Toronto, Canada)

Rupaleem Bhuyan is an assistant professor of social work. She has spent nearly two decades in the anti-violence movement, as a peer educator to stop rape among college students, as an advocate for survivors of abuse, and in the past six years as a community-based researcher working with immigrant, refugee and indigenous communities. Dr. Bhuyan has had opportunities to work with many diverse communities across North America, in France and Thailand. Her current research explores how immigration enforcement polities and political pressure to deny immigrant access to public benefits impacts their response to domestic violence and related health sequelae in Canada and the United States.