Overview
Spencer is a historian of anarchism and the left in the Americas. His dissertation, titled “Love and Rage: Revolutionary Anarchism in the Late Twentieth Century,” explores the revitalization of anarchism in the 1980s-90s. The dissertation draws from the Anarchist Oral History Project that he helps run. His writing can be found at emptyhandshistory.com. He is on Twitter @spencerbeswick and Mastodon @spencerbeswick@kolektiva.social
Advisors: Russell Rickford, Ray Craib, and Claudia Verhoeven
Publications
Journal articles and book chapters:
“From the Ashes of the Old: Anarchism Reborn in a Counterrevolutionary Age (1970s-1990s),” Anarchist Studies 30(2) (2022): 31-54.
“Radical Americas: A Hemispheric History of the Left,” Left History: A Journal of Historical Inquiry and Debate (Forthcoming, Fall/Winter 2022)
“‘We’re Pro-Choice and We Riot!’: Anarcha-Feminism in Love and Rage (1989-98),” Coils of the Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power (Forthcoming)
“Smashing Whiteness: Race, Class, and Punk Culture in the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation (1989-98),” Anarchism and Punk Book Project (Bristol: Active Distribution, forthcoming in 2023)
Popular writing:
“The Jan. 6 coup blared an alarm about rising fascism. Will we hear it?” The Washington Post (January 6, 2023)
“The Quarantine Commune,” Perspectives on Anarchist Theory (September 11, 2022)
“Abortion Struggles Beyond Voting: Women's Liberation, Reproductive Care, and Dual Power,” Hard Crackers: Chronicles of Everyday Life (August 30, 2022)
“Living Communism: Theory & Practice of Autonomy & Attack,” Perspectives on Anarchist Theory (July 29, 2022)
“Lessons From the Fight to Protect Abortion Clinics in the 1990s: A Discussion,” Interviewed for the It’s Going Down podcast (June 17, 2022)
“‘We’re Pro-Choice and We Riot!’: How Anarcha-Feminists Built Dual Power in Struggles for Reproductive Freedom,” It’s Going Down (May 19, 2022)
“The model for mobilizing to protect abortion rights beyond voting,” The Washington Post (May 17, 2022)
Spencer has taught multiple courses on anarchism, Marxism, and anti-colonialism at Cornell University. He lives with his partner and cats in Ithaca, NY, where he has been involved with Food Not Bombs, the Antidote Infoshop, and DSA. He recently launched a local oral history project called “Socialism is Gorges: Ithaca’s Radical History."