[Air-L] A good way to respond to a query from a student about activism?

Sat Jun 6 10:03:46 PDT 2020

I also don’t have the answers but wanted to share a free webinar link for academics who are struggling with these questions too.  

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> On 6 Jun 2020, at 09:14, Nishant Shah <itsnishant at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear Sarah,
> Thank you for sharing this note with us. It was powerful and led to
> introspective silence for me. I was deeply in awe of the kind of pedagogy
> that inspires your students to reach out to you asking for more, and also
> in respect for students who see their roles as change actors and are
> creating these structures of intervention. I was a little hesitant in
> stepping into the conversation because I do not have immediate solutions or
> the correct answers; also my own context with one foot in India and one in
> the Netherlands, is very different from the one you occupy. I starred the
> conversation hoping there will be more people sharing their wisdom and
> experience, and I would learn from it.  Steven's mail reminded me that even
> though this isn't so much a 'community', it is still a 'safe space' enough
> for me to share some of what I have been doing through my work in
> community organisation and civil society action, working with young people,
> sometimes, also with my students. Though, like Radhika, I would have
> preferred, perhaps, to have this conversation in a less public forum,
> because, while I appreciate this mailing list and the conferences, and the
> different opportunities it consolidates, very frankly, it has never felt
> like a receptive space for voices that do not fit into the US-American
> education systems and registers. Past experiences have made me in a lurker,
> where I have instead connected with people off-the-list, and found it more
> productive.
> 
> However, in these uncertain times, as things are shifting, I am happy to
> 'un-lurk' and engage with this question, partly through speculation, partly
> through practice, and partly through my own organisation.
> 
> In the last couple of years, because I also had an administrative position
> within the university, the number of students (and often faculty) who
> reached out asking for operational advice and discussions has also
> increased, and I have learned a few things, three of which might help you
> in responding to the student as well.
> 
> 1. I have learned that when students and colleagues reach out, asking for
> what more can we do together, what more can they do together, they are not
> merely coming to seek information. They often have creative and tentative
> plans that they are not sure would be feasible. It helps me a lot to make
> them the owners of the question (not the answer) and see what they think
> could be the avenues of intervention. Often, I find my role as an
> facilitator and a sound-board helping to sometimes crystalise and sometimes
> materialise the actions they have already imagined or are thinking through.
> 
> 2. One thing that my communities have appreciated is that I also
> immediately step in to make sure that the person asking the question is
> being cared for, and has the resources to cope with what they are
> experiencing. Often, with students, they have not thought of the material,
> emotional, and intellectual resources which would keep them safe as they
> take up the risks of activism and intervention. I do have communities and
> resources within which they could find some of this material, and I also
> help them to find the resources within the university, to make sure that
> their work is sustainable and supported.
> 
> 3. In this particular instance, because the spectrum of the current
> world-on-fire politics is so large, it might be helpful to offer to have a
> chat with the student and see what they see their role as. From my own
> experience in online organising, I would also guide them to the larger
> groups, collectives, and communities that are already in action and urge
> them to pool resources rather than trying to start something on their own.
> It would also be useful to help 'localize' their 'social media' actions and
> see if they can situate themselves in the immediate physical environments
> and identify where the blind spots or missing gaps are. One of their
> expertise is critical cultural and digital analysis and they might be able
> to review and analyse the ongoing campaigns and see where they might be
> able to step in.
> 
> And at the back of my head, in all these conversations, I have the voice of
> a young activist who doesn't like being named and tagged on social media,
> so I will respect their privacy, but something they had told me a long time
> ago was powerful: Before you set out to save the world, make sure the world
> needs saving and it needs you to do the saving.
> 
> I hope that this might be fruitful in thinking through how to respond to
> the query in particular, but also perhaps expand the question of 'social
> media for positive change' to 'social media actors and their actions' for
> meaningful transformation.
> 
> Warm regards,
> Nishant
> 
>> On Sat, Jun 6, 2020 at 4:18 PM Jones, Steve <sjones at uic.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear Sarah, air-l subscribers:
>> 
>> When I saw this message I first felt for the student and appreciated her
>> query. I wondered this, too: What can I do? I didn’t want to dive in with
>> any suggestions because to be honest I have no more beyond expressing
>> support, donating, joining local protests and adding my voice to those
>> calling on elected officials to tell them they should know they will be
>> held accountable. And as an old, white, cis male there are a whole heck of
>> a lot more voices that need to be heard than mine, ones with far better
>> ideas about what to do and how to support black people and everyone else
>> who is not like me. I want to hear them; I want them to be heard.
>> 
>> It’s been longer than 24 hours since this posting and there’s been
>> nothing, no replies. Nor has there been anything from AoIR’s executive
>> committee. Maybe people are struggling in ways I can’t even imagine and a
>> reply is beyond their ability right now. Fair enough. And there are other
>> places where conversations are ongoing. air-l has over the years become
>> more an announcement list and less a discussion list. So it goes. But there
>> are a lot of us on this list and that there has not been a single response
>> to Sarah’s message is troubling to me.
>> 
>> Now, it’s fair to ask whether this is something air-l should be engaged in
>> discussing, and whether it is something AoIR needs to address. Yes, and
>> yes. The struggle taking place in the U.S. is not confined to the U.S.
>> Among the many things Stuart Hall taught me, opened my eyes to, is that the
>> black experience is not a U.S. experience only. He also pointed out that
>> all injustice is to be spoken out against. Now is the time to recommit to
>> racial justice. I have heard some people criticize statements from various
>> individuals and  institutions as too little, too late, or opportunistic, or
>> as face-saving. Maybe, but I won’t judge: I want to hear the voices, plain
>> and simple: Black Lives Matter.
>> 
>> We have studied race online, protest movements online, you might even say
>> we’ve studied the shit out of #Ferguson, Arab Spring, and many other
>> expressions of oppression and responses to it. But what are we _doing_
>> about any of it? Sarah’s student’s question is what I feel we need to
>> discuss. Is there "the potential to leverage social media for positive
>> social change?” Yes or no? If yes, how? If no, let’s find and discuss some
>> other things we can do. AoIR has from the start been the most welcoming and
>> engaging scholarly community I’ve had the honor to be part of; let’s show
>> who we are and what we can do.
>> 
>> Peace and good health to all,
>> 
>> Steve
>> 
>>>> On Jun 4, 2020, at 5:04 PM, Sarah Ann Oates <soates at umd.edu> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Dear AOIRers,
>>> 
>>> I wanted to ask this great list a question for our times. See the message
>>> below from a student I taught in an online social media and society
>> course,
>>> in which we had a module on #BlackLivesMatter. Can you think of a better
>>> way to respond than just with a list of campus groups and a note that I
>> was
>>> impressed that she wanted to commit to activism for her beliefs? That's
>>> what I did, but I'd like to help a bit more because it's heartening both
>> to
>>> see students wanting to put their scholarship into action. Thanks in
>>> advance. BTW, I asked her if I could ask the list and she said that was
>>> great.
>>> 
>>> Here is her message:
>>> 
>>> As a young black woman, I am struggling to cope with all that is
>> happening
>>> in our country right now. Looking at social media I am further saddened
>> to
>>> see images of Black men being murdered and their deaths reposted and
>>> reposted for all to see. I fear people will become desensitized to these
>>> images and names like George Floyd will just become another hashtag and
>>> forgotten victim of a corrupt system.
>>> 
>>> *... I was wondering if you had any advice or resources for action beyond
>>> social media. I know the Black Lives Matter module discussed the sort of
>>> "wind tunnels" we create where like-minded people swirl ideas among
>> mutual
>>> followers, but little action is taken beyond likes and retweets. I want
>> to
>>> do something that goes beyond liking a post or ranting about it on
>> Twitter.
>>> If you have any ideas or resources regarding the potential to leverage
>>> social media for positive social change I'd love to learn more about
>> them!*
>>> 
>>> Sarah Oates
>>> Professor and Senior Scholar
>>> Philip Merrill College of Journalism
>>> University of Maryland
>>> College Park, MD 20457
>>> Email: soates at umd.edu
>>> Phone: 301 455 2332
>>> www.media-politics.com
>>> Twitter: @media_politics
>>> 
>>> *Support the UMD Student Crisis Fund
>>> <https://giving.umd.edu/giving/showPage.php?name=crisis-funding> today.
>> *
>>> _______________________________________________
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>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Dr. Nishant Shah (Ph.D.)
> Professor, Aesthetics & Cultures of Technology, Director Research
> ArtEZ University of the Arts, The Netherlands.
> Knowledge Partner, Digital Earth Project, Hivos
> Mentor, Feminist Internet Research Network, APC
> https://nishantshah.online
> _______________________________________________
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