The Subtleties of Repression: Understanding University Student Activists’ Experiences of Violence and Suppression

• In Event: Reframing Threat: A comparative analysis of attacks on education

Proposal

Globally, university students have often been leaders in fights for social, economic and political change. Recently, students across places as diverse as Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom have pushed back against neoliberal reforms that have led to the commodification of educational services, privatization, increased tuition fees, and bureaucratic management that has made the financing of education increasingly contingent on performance standards (see, e.g. della Porta et al., 2020).

Students have also agitated against authoritarian and repressive regimes. In the past few years, students in Myanmar have been leaders in the civil disobedience movement protesting the military junta. In Iran, widespread student protests have taken place since the October 2021 death of a twenty-two-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, while in custody of the country’s morality police. Turkey has seen students rise up in support of LGBTQ+ rights, to express their disagreement with government encroachment into university governance, and in favor of more affordable student housing.

Student activism is an important aspect of student learning. Learning happens both inside and outside of the classroom, and engaging in student activism is an important way for university students to develop skills and gain experience and new perspectives. Some argue that student activism, when it is nonviolent or focuses on volunteerism or service learning, is a form of civic education (Broadhurst and Martin, 2014; Klemenčîč, 2015; Lee, 2018; Klemenčîč, 2020).

Yet, students’ ability to protest is increasingly constrained in the current global context of rising authoritarianism and increasing illiberal democratic practices (Buyse, 2018; Sajo, 2021). In the past decade, researchers and civil society organizations have expressed concern over increasing restrictions and government intrusion into civic space (Hossain et al., 2018; Roggeband and Krizsan, 2021), including in the form of military coups, government manipulation of law, fraudulent elections, right-wing populism, disinformation, and political polarization (CIVICUS, 2022; V-Dem Institute, 2022).

Research on repression, human rights violations, and attacks on students’ right to education often focuses on individual incidents and physical violence (Boykoff, 2007; Earl, 2011). Yet, physical violence is just the tip of the iceberg. Student activists are often targeted in ways that are more subtle, less visible, and yet pervasive, insidious, and harmful. For instance, government and university authorities may delegitimize students by calling them “terrorists,” “hooligans,” “criminals,” “idiots,” or “perverts;” rhetoric which may serve to justify violence against them. Ruling factions and university administrations may attempt to co-opt students by offering them incentives. Or student activists may be tacitly threatened with a “review” of their academic records and possibly expulsion (Kapit 2023).

This presentation draws on two sources of data to better understand the ways in which student activists are threatened and how students cope with these threats. The first is a series of qualitative interviews conducted with student activists living across the globe. The second is the 2023 Free to Think report, published by Scholars at Risk, examining threats to academic freedom and student free expression globally.

Authors

• Amy R Kapit, Scholars at Risk

• Lauren Berntsen, Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH)