“What my peers and I care about is not simply the state of free speech protection on university campuses, though it is unconscionable that Fordham has created these conditions in which many students no longer feel safe to voice support for Palestine. What we believe in is standing against racism and imperialism and actively promoting collective self-determination for Palestinians and all colonized peoples.”
Occupation: Student; Intern at Damayan Migrant Workers Association
University: Fordham University
Organization(s): Fordham Students for Sex And Gender Equity and Safety Coalition; Fordham Students for Justice in Palestine; Fordham Students United; Damayan; Justice Center en El Barrio.
Sofia Dadap is a writer, organizer and student at Fordham University studying Anthropology and Women’s Studies and currently writing her senior thesis. She is an intern at the Damayan Migrant Workers Association, an organization dedicated to promoting the rights, welfare and self-determination of Filipino migrant domestic workers in New York and New Jersey.
On campus, Sofia is a part of a group of Fordham students who have been trying to start a Students for Justice in Palestine club since 2016 to raise awareness about issues faced by Palestinians and how their struggles intersect with other anti-colonial movements.
Throughout Sofia’s time at Fordham, she has organized through the Fordham Students for Sex And Gender Equity and Safety Coalition, which focuses on several issues involving reproductive justice, campus assault and free speech. Since 2014, SAGES Coalition has established a student network for distributing contraception, resources, and health information on both Fordham campuses. They have also promoted workers’ rights at the university, collaborating with Fordham Students United in 2015 to advocate for the school’s foodservice employees when the provider contract was up for bid and working to support adjunct faculty in their 2016-17 campaign for unionization.
Sofia is an active volunteer at the Justice Center en El Barrio, a space for community organizing in East Harlem that hosts forums, open mics, and weekly film screenings on local, national, and international political and social issues.
Sofia is based in New York City. In her spare time, Sofia writes poetry and nonfiction essays, takes photographs, records music and reads ethnographies.