Scholars in the Streets: Historical Portraits of Disruptive Faculty Collective Action

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 59
  In Roundtable Session: Minoritized Students' and Scholars' Experiences: Forging a Future

Abstract

Social movement history and the intersection between activism and education is often forgotten, over-simplified, or obscured. This study uncovers historical instances of postsecondary faculty collective activism to increase the repertoire of available options for scholar activism. Seeking collective and under-utilized forms of activism, we adopt Piven’s (2006) notion of disruptive power as a theoretical frame. A portraiture approach combined with oral history and archival research data results in stories of diverse instances of faculty collective action. This paper presents two of those stories, both from New York City and concerned particularly with marginalized and/or international communities. From these stories, we learn about the many types of interdependent power faculty have, and how they have leveraged that power successfully.

Authors

• Nora Timmerman, Northern Arizona University

• Nina Porter, Northern Arizona University