Creating a Faculty Activism Commons for Social Justice

This timely book shines a light on social justice activism within higher education, calling for a conceptual space of faculty activism to share and build on the work of others who came before.

Written by expert social justice academics, this volume provides a collection of honest, critically reflective personal narratives by those who are leading systemic change within their institutions. The faculty authors share openly about their experiences, motivations, challenges, alliances, hopelessness, hopefulness, and what they wish they had known from the start. Topics include addressing systemic racism, changing discriminatory academic policies, establishing resources for historically marginalized students, advocating for a more diverse faculty and staff, educating the campus about bias, among others. This book empowers social justice academics to navigate the complexities of institutional procedures, recognize invisible walls that slow progress, and curate coalitions for systemic change.

Uniquely addressing the joys and challenges of creating systemic change, the book will be essential reading for faculty involved in social justice activism within their universities and colleges. The book will also be relevant for all those in the fields of social justice, community engagement, critical higher education, psychology, and sociology.

?In this volume, Warner and Case have curated 'soul songs' rising from an invisible and crucial space of unacknowledged, bone crushing, joyous and usually invisible academic labor: the faculty activist commons. Reading through these relentless, powerful, intersectional and heart-breaking narratives sketched in the shadows of the commons?they reflect, in public and in writing, on the struggle for justice in our universities. This is not a volume of despair but courage/imagination/radical transformation from within, as they offer a cautionary tale about why it matters so much to fight for a progressive, bold, truth telling and inquiry driven academy.?
Michelle Fine, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, The Graduate Center, and Visiting scholar at the University of South Africa.

?This important book highlights strategies to reimagine the university as more socially just. Recognizing isolation, resistance, and defeat as well as connection, joy, and success, the authors showcase the frustrating and hopeful world of faculty activism.?
Joya Misra, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.

"We live in a society that tacitly accepts the assumption that scholarship and knowledge, ideally, transcends worldly concerns and should be unsullied by investigator bias. The scholars in this book reveal the extent to which knowledge production is tied intimately with systems of oppression and injustice. Fighting for social justice in spaces of higher education is already difficult; to write about one's own journey navigating those systems even more so. The contributors of this book have given us all a gift in their words and narratives. The contributions to this volume will inspire you, move you, and even stir you to action."
Rudy Mendoza-Denton, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, USA.