Creating a Faculty Activism Commons for Social Justice

Kim A. Case, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. She investigates the systemic impact of workplace dominant cultural norms and practices on how academics navigate job demands with particular attention to health, performance, and retention outcomes. Her faculty development podcast and consulting (www.drkimcase.com) supports social justice academics tackling topics such as job crafting, values alignment, and invisible labor.Leah R. Warner, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Her interdisciplinary scholarship concerns integrating intersectionality into psychological research and teaching strategies for addressing controversial social issues within U.S. sociopolitical contexts. She has received the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Teaching Innovation and Action Teaching Awards, is a SPSSI fellow, and serves on the editorial boards of Sex Roles and Psychology of Women Quarterly.

• 1. Introduction An Invitation to The Faculty Activism Commons: Strength Through Truth-Telling and Vulnerability 2. Navigating Performative Activism and Invisibility: I Can’t Believe What You Say Because I See What You Do 3. Shifting and Persisting in the Face of Failure: Learning from what did not work 4. “Himpathy”, Apathy, and Ageism: The Formal Complaint as a Necessary Form of Activism 5. Unpacking Toxic Social Justice Cannibalism: The Call is Coming from Inside the House 6. More Than a Name: Centering Students in a Faculty-Student Activism Collaboration 7. Reflections on our Departmental Journey to Collective Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Action 8. The Squeaky Wheel gets the Required Diversity Course and Faculty Certification 9. Building a Professional On-campus Organization to Support Women and Mothers 10. Entrenched or In the Trenches: Institutionalized Hijacking of Faculty Engaged in Campus Activism 11. Faculty Versus Administrator Anti-Racist Activism: How Much Progress Justifies the Struggle? 12. Aligning Financial Aid and Academic Standing Policies to Support Racially and Economically Minoritized Students 13. Transforming Structures of Whiteness: The Joys and Pains of Reimagining University Leadership 14. Advancing Collegewide Accessibility: Making Lasting Change Despite High Turnover

“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.