1st Edition
Creating a Faculty Activism Commons for Social Justice Finding Hope in the Messy Truth
This timely book shines a light on social justice activism within higher education, calling for a conceptual space of faculty activism to share and build on the work of others who came before.
Written by expert social justice academics, this volume provides a collection of honest, critically reflective personal narratives by those who are leading systemic change within their institutions. The faculty authors share openly about their experiences, motivations, challenges, alliances, hopelessness, hopefulness, and what they wish they had known from the start. Topics include addressing systemic racism, changing discriminatory academic policies, establishing resources for historically marginalized students, advocating for a more diverse faculty and staff, educating the campus about bias, among others. This book empowers social justice academics to navigate the complexities of institutional procedures, recognize invisible walls that slow progress, and curate coalitions for systemic change.
Uniquely addressing the joys and challenges of creating systemic change, the book will be essential reading for faculty involved in social justice activism within their universities and colleges. The book will also be relevant for all those in the fields of social justice, community engagement, critical higher education, psychology, and sociology.
1. Introduction
An Invitation to The Faculty Activism Commons: Strength Through Truth-Telling and Vulnerability
Leah R. Warner and Kim A. Case
2. Navigating Performative Activism and Invisibility: I Can’t Believe What You Say Because I See What You Do
Apryl A. Alexander
3. Shifting and Persisting in the Face of Failure: Learning from what did not work
Ryan M. Pickering
4. “Himpathy”, Apathy, and Ageism: The Formal Complaint as a Necessary Form of Activism
Lauren B. Smith
5. Unpacking Toxic Social Justice Cannibalism: The Call is Coming from Inside the House
Kim A. Case
6. More Than a Name: Centering Students in a Faculty-Student Activism Collaboration
Emily A. Leskinen, Parker Rogers, and Leah R. Warner
7. Reflections on our Departmental Journey to Collective Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Action
Debra A. Bercovici, Kosha D. Bramesfeld, and Jessica Dere
8. The Squeaky Wheel gets the Required Diversity Course and Faculty Certification
Fadoua Loudiy, Christine Pease-Hernandez, Emily Keener, and Cindy LaCom
9. Building a Professional On-campus Organization to Support Women and Mothers
Heather K. Olson Beal and Lauren E. Brewer
10. Entrenched or In the Trenches: Institutionalized Hijacking of Faculty Engaged in Campus Activism
Ruma Sen and Paula Straile-Costa
11. Faculty Versus Administrator Anti-Racist Activism: How Much Progress Justifies the Struggle?
Lina Rincón
12. Aligning Financial Aid and Academic Standing Policies to Support Racially and Economically Minoritized Students
Regina Day Langhout and Tchad Sanger
13. Transforming Structures of Whiteness: The Joys and Pains of Reimagining University Leadership
Rebecca Covarrubias and Katherine N. Quinteros
14. Advancing Collegewide Accessibility: Making Lasting Change Despite High Turnover
Michelle R. Nario-Redmond, Alexia Kemerling, and Ceara G. Nario-Redmond
Biography
Kim A. Case, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. She investigates the systemic impact of workplace dominant cultural norms and practices on how academics navigate job demands with particular attention to health, performance, and retention outcomes. Her faculty development podcast and consulting (www.drkimcase.com) supports social justice academics tackling topics such as job crafting, values alignment, and invisible labor.
Leah R. Warner, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Her interdisciplinary scholarship concerns integrating intersectionality into psychological research and teaching strategies for addressing controversial social issues within U.S. sociopolitical contexts. She has received the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Teaching Innovation and Action Teaching Awards, is a SPSSI fellow, and serves on the editorial boards of Sex Roles and Psychology of Women Quarterly.
“In this volume, Warner and Case have curated 'soul songs' rising from an invisible and crucial space of unacknowledged, bone crushing, joyous and usually invisible academic labor: the faculty activist commons. Reading through these relentless, powerful, intersectional and heart-breaking narratives sketched in the shadows of the commons…they reflect, in public and in writing, on the struggle for justice in our universities. This is not a volume of despair but courage/imagination/radical transformation from within, as they offer a cautionary tale about why it matters so much to fight for a progressive, bold, truth telling and inquiry driven academy.”
Michelle Fine, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, The Graduate Center, and Visiting scholar at the University of South Africa.“This important book highlights strategies to reimagine the university as more socially just. Recognizing isolation, resistance, and defeat as well as connection, joy, and success, the authors showcase the frustrating and hopeful world of faculty activism.”
Joya Misra, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA."We live in a society that tacitly accepts the assumption that scholarship and knowledge, ideally, transcends worldly concerns and should be unsullied by investigator bias. The scholars in this book reveal the extent to which knowledge production is tied intimately with systems of oppression and injustice. Fighting for social justice in spaces of higher education is already difficult; to write about one's own journey navigating those systems even more so. The contributors of this book have given us all a gift in their words and narratives. The contributions to this volume will inspire you, move you, and even stir you to action."
Rudy Mendoza-Denton, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, USA.
