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Anti-racist scholar-activism
Anti-racist scholar-activism raises urgent questions about the role of contemporary universities and the academics that work within them. As profound socio-racial crises collide with mass anti-racist mobilisations, this book focuses on the praxes of academics working within, and against, their institutions in pursuit of anti-racist social justice. Amidst a searing critique of the university’s neoliberal and imperial character, Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly situate the university as a contested space, full of contradictions and tensions.
Drawing upon original empirical data, the book considers how anti-racist scholar-activists navigate barriers and backlash in order to leverage the opportunities and resources of the university in service to communities of resistance. Showing praxes of anti-racist scholar-activism to be complex, diverse, and multi-faceted, and paying particular attention to how scholar-activists grapple with their own complicities in the harms perpetrated and perpetuated by Higher Education institutions, this book is a call to arms for academics who are, or want to be, committed to social justice.
Drawing upon original empirical data, the book considers how anti-racist scholar-activists navigate barriers and backlash in order to leverage the opportunities and resources of the university in service to communities of resistance. Showing praxes of anti-racist scholar-activism to be complex, diverse, and multi-faceted, and paying particular attention to how scholar-activists grapple with their own complicities in the harms perpetrated and perpetuated by Higher Education institutions, this book is a call to arms for academics who are, or want to be, committed to social justice.
280 pages, Paperback
Published November 2, 2021
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July 22, 2022
The notion and validation of the scholar-activist is an uncomfortable one in contemporary higher education. On the one hand, one of the increasingly powerful ‘measures’ of academic practice is the idea of ‘impact’ – our research and so forth is expected to have resonance beyond the academy as well as without our communities of academic practice. The problem is that this ‘impact’ is not inclusive – ‘good’ impact is the kind that brings income, enhances (or perhaps tweaks) the way things are done, feeds into policy and brings to our universities (and it often seems begrudgingly us) kudos and standing crucially, it does not lead to systemic change.
This contradiction between the endorsement of impact and financialised expectations of the neoliberal university is part of the issue at the core of this fabulous ethnography of scholars who rock the boat. The other essential part of analysis is that these scholars focus on anti-racist work in institutions intimately linked to the (re)production of systemic racism and very often systemically racist in the structuring, design and operations. That is to say, with the ways that universities are intimately interwoven into existing regimes and systems of power and privilege.
A big part of the issue then is working within the institutions that play a major part in sustaining the systems of oppression of this scholarship and activism is intended to confront and change. The analysis is very much grounded in practice, with evidence drawn from work with ‘scholar-activists’ (a term they critique) at various stages of academic careers and differently racialized in the British context. In addition, both Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly classify themselves as anti-racist scholar activists (I knew Joseph-Salisbury’s work through activist networks and publications well before I knew his scholarly work) so have themselves a significant presence in the evidence and analysis. What all of this means is that while the text is theoretically rich and sophisticated, the depth and breadth of its evidence and the cases explored means that this theory is for the most part lightly worn. Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly, although working with a university press, have clearly recognised the wider audience their work is likely to appeal to. (As an aside, this is the second Manchester UP title in the last year that has really impressed me in its anti-racism activism focus –Asim Qureshi’s I Refuse to Condemn is also worth a look).
This is a compelling argument for the importance of ‘scholar-activism’ while also being alert to the challenges and limitations of that work, especially the dangers of reproducing the power regimes that are the ostensible focus of the activist work. That said, Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly conclude with a remarkably non-prescriptive manifesto, that is as much as anything centred on dispositions rather than programmatic expectations. This makes the book all the more valuable – shifting from a rich sociological analysis to a text with potential for high impact – although admittedly not the kind of income generating impact our powers that be prefer. Highly recommended.
This contradiction between the endorsement of impact and financialised expectations of the neoliberal university is part of the issue at the core of this fabulous ethnography of scholars who rock the boat. The other essential part of analysis is that these scholars focus on anti-racist work in institutions intimately linked to the (re)production of systemic racism and very often systemically racist in the structuring, design and operations. That is to say, with the ways that universities are intimately interwoven into existing regimes and systems of power and privilege.
A big part of the issue then is working within the institutions that play a major part in sustaining the systems of oppression of this scholarship and activism is intended to confront and change. The analysis is very much grounded in practice, with evidence drawn from work with ‘scholar-activists’ (a term they critique) at various stages of academic careers and differently racialized in the British context. In addition, both Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly classify themselves as anti-racist scholar activists (I knew Joseph-Salisbury’s work through activist networks and publications well before I knew his scholarly work) so have themselves a significant presence in the evidence and analysis. What all of this means is that while the text is theoretically rich and sophisticated, the depth and breadth of its evidence and the cases explored means that this theory is for the most part lightly worn. Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly, although working with a university press, have clearly recognised the wider audience their work is likely to appeal to. (As an aside, this is the second Manchester UP title in the last year that has really impressed me in its anti-racism activism focus –Asim Qureshi’s I Refuse to Condemn is also worth a look).
This is a compelling argument for the importance of ‘scholar-activism’ while also being alert to the challenges and limitations of that work, especially the dangers of reproducing the power regimes that are the ostensible focus of the activist work. That said, Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly conclude with a remarkably non-prescriptive manifesto, that is as much as anything centred on dispositions rather than programmatic expectations. This makes the book all the more valuable – shifting from a rich sociological analysis to a text with potential for high impact – although admittedly not the kind of income generating impact our powers that be prefer. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 of 1 review