Confronting Injustice in Higher Education: Faculty and Staff Engagement in and Perspectives of the 2024 Liberate Palestine Student Protest Movement

• In Event: Challenging Power in Education: Policy, Discourse, and Resistance in Local and Global Contexts

Abstract

This qualitative research study leverages faculty and staff interview data to elucidate what occurred on U.S. college campuses during the 2024 Liberate Palestine Student Protest Movement. The specific aim of this research is to identify the motivation for faculty and staff to support the movement, clarify the ways that faculty and staff supported the movement, discuss the effect that faculty and staff involvement had on the protests, and evaluate institutional administrators’ responses to the protests. This research captures the variable perspectives of faculty and staff who were involved in the protests and provides educational leaders with strategies to promote peaceful yet meaningful engagement when future student-led protest movements arise.

Author

• Hilary A. Houlette, University of Arizona