Student Protest, Crisis Response, and National Narratives: Using Historical Perspective to Interpret the Present

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: The Battle for Higher Education and Historical Truth(s)

Abstract

This paper is a work in progress and builds upon previous research on the discourse of crisis as national leaders interpreted the student protests of May 1970 at Kent State and Jackson State. A comparative analysis of the discourse of national leaders’ interpretation of the events of 1970 to those of the Biden and Trump administrations' interpretation of recent student activism provides researchers—historians and scholars of contemporary issues—a means to not only interpret the discursive strategies that frame the student protests, but also understand how and why these narratives, the discourses, are important and impactful in the effort to maintain free speech, academic freedom, and a culture of critical inquiry on American college and university campuses.

Authors

• Allison Palmadessa, Greensboro College

• Erica Eckert, Kent State University

• Mary Kate Steinbeck, University of Georgia