Unforgetting in an Era of Erasure: Resisting Anti-Justice Attacks and Envisioning Futures for Higher Education

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

This session addresses escalating anti-DEI and anti-justice assaults that criminalize racial justice work across U.S. colleges and universities today. What makes this session unique is its multi-level analysis: four papers span national legal shifts, policymaker discourse, historical institutional case study, and experimental framing research, offering a panoramic view of how racial retrenchment is produced and contested. Presenters represent diverse states and institutional types, linking research to varied contexts of vulnerability and resistance. Beyond diagnosis, the session emphasizes praxis. A signature feature is its interactive pair-share and cross-panel discussion, enabling participants to surface challenges from their own contexts and co-construct strategies that refuse retrenchment while reimagining justice-centered futures. It illuminates strategies for resisting retrenchment while sustaining justice-centered work.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Walter R. Allen, University of California - Los Angeles

Papers

• Law in the Crosshairs: Federalism, Civil Rights, and the Fight for Equity in Higher Education - Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, University of Virginia School of Law

• Legislating Whiteness: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Policymaker Rhetoric - Veronica Adele Jones, University of North Texas; Kaleb L. Briscoe, University of Oklahoma

• Interpreting Otherwise: Fugitive Agency and the Reimagining of Racial Justice at UNC - Uma Mazyck Jayakumar, University of California - Riverside; Rican Vue, University of California - Riverside

• Words That Win or Wither: Framing Racial Equity Amid Ideological Resistance in Higher Education - Royel M. Johnson, University of Southern California; Terrill O. Taylor, University of Maryland

Discussant

• Julian Vasquez Heilig, Western Michigan University