Over the past decade, increasingly more colleges and universities have had to address student-initiated demands following racist incidents that occur both locally and nationally. However, the demands to address unfair conditions on campus do not necessarily result in meaningful change. To better understand how student activism facilitates…

Neoliberalism continues to exacerbate systemic racism and restricts efforts to address racial and social justice issues. Consequently, there has not only been an increase of public concern, but students are constantly driven to organize around their experiences. Asian American students are currently and have historically been one of these…

Sit-in protests are occurring more frequently on college campuses and yet are viewed with greater disdain by university administration than more conventional protest actions. This grounded theory research study aims to explain the decision-making process of student activists who participate in a sit-in of a university space. Additionally, the…

This paper explores the root causes of student unrest in South African universities and evaluates the institutional responses to these protests, otherwise regarded as social unrest. The study is lensed through social movement theory and institutional theory. The study adopted transformative paradigm under qualitative approach and participatory…

Student activism has existed for as long as higher education has existed in the United States. The subject has been studied at length, and yet there is still more to be understood regarding institutional response to student activism, students' perceptions of that response, and strategies that may be employed to address student activists' concerns.…

College students across the United States are engaging in protests, sit-ins, and walk-outs, but when do these political acts result in tangible institutional policy changes? This paper draws on qualitative data from interviews and focus groups with 502 participants across the United States to examine when and why college student political…

A managerial model of shared governance is adopted in Hong Kong's public universities to uphold university autonomy. However, with the political confrontation characterised by the rise of student activism, the sustainability of the managerial form of university autonomy requires review and re-exploration. This paper aims to examine the influence…

Kent State University (KSU) has been associated with campus activism history since May 4, 1970. Using a case study approach, we interrogated if and how KSU student affairs administrators' approach to activism has changed in the intervening decades and how the legacy of the shootings informed their practice during the Black Lives Matters protests…

Steeped in the AsianCrit theoretical framework, the current study examined how anti-Asian hate impacted the mental health of Asian and diasporic Asian doctoral women in STEM. Six emergent themes were identified: 1) Witnessing and Experiencing Anti-Asian Hate; 2) Lack of Institutional and STEM Departmental Support; 3) Impact of Anti-Asian Hate on…

Researchers studying college student activism have learned much about those students' motivations, tactics, and educational outcomes. Less is known about the relationships between activists and key institutional agents. For student activists with minoritized identities, institutional agents sometimes establish and maintain barriers between their…

How does the academic discourse of resistance in university classrooms write the identities of resisting students into shape? We answer this question by performing a review of the student resistance literature. Analyzing this literature, we apply methods of critical discourse analysis and identify six identity positions of the resisting student as…

The university system in Nigeria has been characterised by persistent social unrest traceable to strained relationships between students and the university authorities. Observations, reports and literature confirm that students' unrest in the universities has become a clog in the wheel of development and speedy actualisation of university goals…

The United States is a nation rooted in imperialism, colonialism, and racism, built on the backs of minoritized people whose perspectives are not reflected in dominant narratives at every level of society. Historically, Black women have had both racialized and gendered experiences generally and specifically in institutions of postsecondary…

Student activists have a long history of causing disruption on American college campuses. They have fought against numerous racial, sexual, and economic injustices in order to provide a more welcoming environment. Research supports that students who have a stronger sense of belonging and connection to their institution are more likely to persist…

Students with minoritized identities (SMI) are increasingly engaged on college campuses as activists and often feel unsupported by faculty and student affairs professionals (SAP). This phenomenological study examined how eight SMI activists described their experiences partnering with faculty or SAPs. Data analysis from semi-structured interviews…