One of the Material Collective’s foundational principles is to advocate for real progressive change in academia and beyond. Just as we pursue a variety of scholarly interests, we support a range of different causes and movements. But we all agree with what Eileen Joy had to say in her introduction to L.O. Aranye Fradenburg’s book, Staying Alive: A Survival Manual for the Liberal Arts (NY: Punctum Books, 2013):
…those of us who work within the humanities must commit some of our most valuable resources (primarily, our always-encroached-upon time, and some part of our inner emotional lives) to academic activism, whether through letter writing, blog polemics, organized protests and strikes, collectivist agitation and intervention, mutual aid initiatives, and books such as these. (p. xxv)
We also appreciate that an activist mode-of-being is not the natural state for many academics, and so we hope to use this platform to communicate more broadly about issues that affect us all. As Fradenburg herself puts it in Staying Alive, “No academic today, in whatever field, can afford to be ignorant of the historical, economic and political circumstances of his or her work.” (p. 30)
We offer a set of links to some resources and readings on academic activism, and we invite you to lend an ear to the blog and our twitter feed (@materialcoll) for specific issues and calls-to-action as they come to the fore.
General Organizations (Directing Donations)
Civil Rights
Racial Justice
- Black Lives Matter
- The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
- Showing Up for Racial Justice
- Amend the 13th
- Black Youth Project 100
- White Nonsense Roundup
Reproductive Rights and Preventing Sexual Violence
Disability Rights
LGBTQ and Trans Rights
Immigrant Rights
Against Islamophobia and Pro Palestine
Parent Activism
Getting Money out of Politics
Gun Control
The Environment
Labor and Workers’ Rights
Broad Community Organizing