Hybrid: Room D120 (DPU, Emdrup) and online on Zoom, but to receive zoom link for the conference please register through this link.

Chair: Associate Professor Gritt B. Nielsen, Danish School of Education, Emdrup

Title: ‘Boundaries of dissent at Columbia University and Barnard College’

Hannah Henckel and My Abrahamsen (Copenhagen University, Masters students in Anthropology)

Hannah and My have an internship at DPU affiliated to Gritt Nielsen’s and Lærke Cecilie Anbert’s project ‘Fighting for e/quality: comparative ethnographies of new student movements’. They will present insights from their MA Thesis, film and fieldwork on student activism at Columbia University & Barnard College USA, conducted from 1 October 2023 to 1 January 2024.

Abstract:  How can we understand the dynamics and processes that led to clashes between Columbia's administration and student Palestine activists in the spring of 2024?  The presentation will address the affective politics, student social relations and punitive structures at Barnard College and Columbia University in the fall of 2023 that shaped the space for activism on the two campuses. It will further delve into the phenomenon of ‘doxxing’, where student activists' personal information - their full name, photo, social media profiles, or home address - is published online and how that has affected the students’ organizing. Through these cases, participants will be invited to discuss the restriction and expansion of student activism in the later pro-Palestinian encampments that spread from Columbia University across the USA and many other parts of the world. We look forward to reflecting on the present moment in student activism, and its broader implications for social movements and higher education.