What is at risk in campus activism?: Learning as part of progressive social change in U.S. and Indian higher education

Abstract

This paper studies student activism within higher education, examining the associated risks in varied cultural and historical contexts. Utilizing case studies from the United States on environmental sustainability within a business school and entrenched caste-based hierarchies in India, we describe how student activism was enacted to transform infrastructures of higher education. This study shows how students navigate institutional norms and power structures, and how risk shaped students' practices of activism and their learning. We analyzed infrastructures to identify master narratives that upheld the standards and classification systems shaping access and opportunities for student activists. We then studied how students navigated, questioned, and changed infrastructure as a form of learning. Our analysis underscores that activism is a purposive learning endeavor, necessitating an assessment of risks within specific socio-educational ecologies. The findings underscore the imperative for institutions to acknowledge and support student activism, particularly in contexts marked by systemic biases and limited safeguards for student activists.