Settler Activists in Academia: What are ethical pathways for non-Indigenous academics working towards decolonial justice?

• In Event: Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 10: Movements at the Organizational Level

Abstract

With increasingly publicized Indigenous resistance and resurgence movements, Canadians and Americans are no longer able to claim ignorance about colonial harms. While settler allies are part of the movement, gestures towards allyship can quickly turn to recolonization, including in academia. Justice-oriented researchers can inadvertently do more harm by extracting knowledge for personal gains, taking up space and resources, and reaffirming colonial systems of knowledge production. Indigenous literature urges settlers to understand their place in movements, avoid performative allyship and white savior ideologies, and stress action over intentionality. This research explores ways settler academics can offer transformative possibilities by mapping strategies for accountability, relationality, and reciprocal collaboration. Ultimately, this project contributes to broader conversations on decolonization and abolition work in the academy, exploring ethical pathways for white researchers committed to equity, repair, and collective liberation.

I am a first-year PhD student in Sociology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and research assistant with the Appalachian Justice Research Center. I am a first-generation settler Canadian on my mom’s side and second generation on my dad’s; both families immigrated from Ukraine. My research and teaching decolonial pathways in academia is grounded in my own family history and upbringing on the settler-colonized Canadian Prairies. I also bring decades of experience with solidarity and activism.

Author

• Natalia Ilyniak, University of Tennessee Knoxville