SPECIMEN #2025-C: Freedom Dreamers: Collective Care in the Cloud

• In Event: Digital Ecologies of Hope: A Natural History of Emerging Media Futures

Abstract

This case study examines how youth activists use digital platforms to envision educational alternatives beyond punitive school policies. Through analysis of bilingual teach-ins about police presence in schools, this research documents creative resistance strategies and collective imagination practices. Young people transform virtual spaces into sites of "freedom dreaming," creating archived resources for ongoing organizing while centering communities most affected by surveillance policies. Bilingual materials demonstrate sophisticated inclusivity, while digital formats enable broader participation than physical gatherings. The practice reveals young people's capacity for complex political analysis and community building across geographic boundaries. This research contributes to understanding youth-led resistance in digital contexts, showing how virtual organizing tools support sustained social change movements while acknowledging challenges in translating digital solidarity into institutional transformation.

Author

• Andrea Kim, Teachers College, Columbia University