It's about damn time: Protesting racism in global higher education through teaching, research, and practice!

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Purpose and Significance
The need for protest and activism is increasingly apparent in contemporary higher education (HE). In recent years, the growth of nationalism, xenophobia, and racism across the globe have been amplified during a racialized health pandemic, reverberations from George Floyd’s murder, and increased anti-Asian sentiments. Although many higher education institutions (HEIs) claimed anti-racist commitments and increased efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the increased politicization of higher education have contributed to a retreat in explicit rhetoric, action, and support against racism in higher education policies and practices. For example, U.S. state legislators calling for an end to critical race theory (CRT), diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and “wokeness” in schools necessitate the need for scholars to engage in protest and activism in higher education. Yet the United States is not alone in these challenges.

In the face of discrimination and racism which continues to plague several realms of (international) higher student and societal experience in Canada, there is an urgent need for better targeted responses (in research and praxis) that challenge policy inequities/discrepancies, disrupt imperial ideologies and unsettle the neocolonial systems which prolong harm for people living on the margins of internationalization. Additionally, institutionalized racism, along with coloniality, globalization, and capitalism exist in interconnected ways that continue to manifest in higher education today around the world (Stein & Andreotti, 2017; George Mwangi & Yao, 2021). International media attention on the Black Lives Matters movement, anti-Asian hate within the COVID-19 context, Rhodes Must Fall in England and South Africa, and college student social media movements against campus racism around the world are just some contemporary examples leading colleges and universities to put out statements condemning racism and/or committing to anti-racist practices (Bosch, 2016; Casellas Connors & McCoy, 2022; Yao & George Mwangi, 2022).

In alignment with the conference theme “The Power of Protest” we argue that faculty and administrators engage in contestation against racism within the walls of their campuses and beyond through their research, teaching, and service. However, this work cannot be done without faculty and administrators having the opportunity to learn about and enact anti-racist practices as well as be supported in their protest against racism and pursuit of global racial equity in higher education. As such, our session is connected through a common conceptual framework from which we ascribe to Bacchetta, Maira, and Winant’s (2019) concept of global raciality. Global raciality refers to “the multiple and differential, intersecting and co-constituting, constructions of race, processes of racialization, and practices of racism as they are manifest in distinct sites across the planet (p. 9).When considering the concept of race, it can be very location-specific, yet with increasing transnational flows, race and racialization can overlap across multiple cultures. Global raciality also highlights the relevance of intersecting identities, such as gender, religion, class, and sexuality. Most importantly, global raciality “takes on different meanings across space and time, and in relation to scattered hegemonies” (p. 9), which is relevant to this particular session considering the contemporary contentious times that currently exist.

We are proposing a panel session at CIES that provides a space to share the ways anti-racist protest is enacted within higher education globally. The purpose of this panel session is to provide an action-oriented discussion that addresses how to embed race/racism as topics in international HE research, teaching, and practice.

Session Structure
The Chair will begin with a short introduction about the vital role of protest and activism in contemporary (international) higher education. Then each paper presentation will offer examples from research, teaching, and practice that highlight salient ways in which activism and resistance can be deployed to address racial inequity in higher education. Each presentation will be followed by a 3 minute reflection pause - an opportunity for the audience to reflect on the highlights and prepare their questions and comments for the post-presentation discussion.

Following presentations, the chair will facilitate a 45 minute dialogue among panelists and attendees to explore what was shared based on the reflections and highlights noted by participants for discussion. They will engage in dialogue centered on (re)imagining higher education for global racial equity through protest that is embodied in activist research, teaching, and practice. This discussion will be guided by the following activating questions:

1. How do we conceptualize protest, activism and resistance as a tool for promoting transformation and equitable outcomes for marginalized bodies in HE?
2. How do we engage in critical reflexivity as we simultaneously interrogate our complicitness in not advancing protest against racism in higher education alongside engagement in anti-racist practice?
3. What anti-racist strategies and frameworks can we learn from or use in protests of issues of race and racism in higher education locally and globally?
4. What are opportunities to develop a common language around race and racism that considers the diversity of histories and contemporary realities that shape these constructs and inform higher education practice and activism locally and globally?
5. How do we leverage our collective expertise to develop and apply resistance strategies across global contexts for eradicating racist policies, practices, and ways of knowing and being towards advancing racial equity in global higher education practice and research?

During the session, presenters will emphasize specific connections between anti-racist initiatives from multiple perspectives and activism in research, teaching, and practice, while decentering whiteness in the reimaginations of HE. They will challenge participants to explore new ways of protest in their HE practice that combats minimalistic discourses of protest and colonial projections of racism and racialized disparities as neutral, natural, and normal. The post presentation dialogue and discussions will leverage the collective expertise of session participants to interrogate opportunities for resisting policies, practices, and ways of knowing and being that are entrenched in white supremacy, colonialism, and racism in higher education contexts. An overarching desired session outcome will be to highlight and deconstruct and inspire the adoption of accessible and sustainable strategies for advancing racial equity in global HE through the integration or use of protest and activism in teaching, research, and practice.

Sub Unit

• Higher Education SIG

Chair

• Louise Michelle Vital, Boston University

Individual Presentations

• Resisting and Combating Racism Through Research Mobilization in Higher Education - Benjamin Denga, NorQuest College and University of Alberta; Christina W Yao, University of South Carolina

• Beyond Race-Neutral Teaching and Curriculum - Solomon Zewolde, University of East London, School of Education & Communities; Chrystal A. George Mwangi, George Mason University

• Examining the Place and Opportunity for Anti-racism Protest in U.S. Higher Education Practice - Louise Michelle Vital, Boston University

Discussant

• Louise Michelle Vital, Boston University