bell hooks (2000) writes, “to experience solidarity, we must have a community of interests, shared beliefs and goals around which to unite…solidarity requires sustained, ongoing commitment” (63).This session asks: What ethical and political commitments are required when working on oppression and injustice from differently configured sites of privilege and power? Academics whose work seeks to expose and unravel systems of violence (racism, colonization, heterosexism, homophobia/transphobia, disableism, classism, among others) are faced with a challenge: how do we ensure that our work is beneficial? How can we resist and refuse the exploitative mandates of academe, become strongly allied with the communities we work with/in, and ensure that we are not inadvertently building careers off of the struggles and stories of others? Can there ever be a shared “community of interests” between researchers and ‘the researched’? This roundtable discussions seeks to move beyond policy documents and best practice recommendations to explore the varied context-specific contradictions, challenges, and triumphs of attempting academic solidarity across difference. We hear from researchers whose work grapples with the shortcomings of simple self-positioning, and moves towards genuine solidarity. We engage with methodologies-in-progress, manifestos for prohibitions or new directions in academic work, and examples of engaged community praxis.
Session Organizer: Laura Landertinger, PhD Student, OISE/University of Toronto, laura.landertinger@mail.utoronto.ca
Session Co-organizer: Griffin Epstein, OISE/University of Toronto , griffin.epstein@gmail.com
Session Chair: Zahra Murad, OISE/University of Toronto
Session Code: PJM7
Schedule, location, and presentations
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