Activism and Academics

The conference entitled "Activism and Academics" consisted of different women speakers and their experiences with just that- Activism and Academics. Each of these women is an educated, accomplished professional. Each of these women is also an activist for many causes of equality, opportunity, and justice. The first speaker was Professor Carol Giardina, who is is a women’s rights activist and has been part of the movement since the 1960s. She is currently part of “Red Stockings” in NYC and focuses on women’s liberation studies. Prof. Giardina mainly spoke about the connection between literature (freedom fighting books) and movements. She claims that books create movements and vise versa- that movements create books. These books needed to be rooted and have evidence from the actual movements and activism it sparks. The next speaker was Dorothy Hodgson, who traveled to South America to do research on women’s studies. There, she interviewed and collaborated with the women and saw how they took action for their cause no matter where they lived, their age, their status, etc. In this, she raised the question “what is an activist?” An activist is anyone who takes a stand and ACTS on it (no matter how small that action is)- it is not enough to just speak on these issues. Next came Vivian Nixon and Professor Patricia Clough. This pair spoke of CLEAR (community leadership education after re-entry), which is an organization that helps people re-enter the community after being incarcerated. These people earn their college degrees and begin careers with the help of mentors. This is a spin-off of an organization, the CCF, that was started especially for women re-entering the community. This was especially interesting because one of the speakers had been a member and is now a leader. She is a great example of the connection between the “academics” and the “activism”.

Kathy Engel and Leslie Cagan spoke about prison, torture and war. They claim that one cannot be a scholar, teacher or learner without being an activist. If one only focuses on the academic, everything they are learning and “doing” is theoretical. Most of the people making decisions about these issues (the higher-ups) are the academics. Though they may know an extensive amount of “theoretical” information, they are NOT the experts on what is actually happening. They should make room to learn from the activists, and then become activists themselves. Dillona Lewis and Professor Mimi Abramoritz spoke specifically on women’s issues in relation to the family. They claim that women have the right to better their situations for themselves and their families. One challenge that poor women face is the welfare laws, which ultimately keep women in a lower position and do not give them the opportunities they may need to break out of the cycle of poverty. Although the speakers addressed women’s issues and the need for “academics and activism”, they interwove other issues of labels, race, gender, age, location, discrimination, oppression, etc. No matter what the issue, there needs to ALWAYS be a connection between academics and activism. This is exactly what we have been talking about all semester- social justice. There are different levels of social justice, like learning, speaking and discussing, but the most authentic and real level to accomplish change is to act- it is the “level 4”- it is the activism. It was comforting to see that even experienced, professional and intelligent women were claiming to have and see the same problems in their work as we do in ours - bridging the content of our classrooms to real life and making it relevant to our students. Ultimately, the goal of our students’ learning it is letting them take a stand and do something that will make the world a better place for them to achieve their goals, no matter who they are.