Campus Activism and Organizing: Past, Present and Future

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Event Description

The role that universities play in social transformation has always been imbued with contradictions. On one hand, campuses serve as critical sites for radical re-imaginings of the world, community mobilization, and organizing. At the same time, the institutional structures that govern these campuses are often placed into an antagonistic and even counterinsurgent relationship to this work. 

This panel conversation will bring together organizers to explore the importance of campus activism in troubled times. Panelists will examine how universities have historically responded to social movements on college campuses, how contemporary technologies and policies further constrain community organizing, and how growing federal pressures are shaping our campus response to activism. 

Panelists will share lessons and strategies for building power in an era of growing job and academic insecurity, sustaining spatial and institutional memory despite constant turnover and erasure, and sustain the future of organizing through material aid and survival projects. Join us to contribute your questions, experiences, and ideas about the future of organizing on college campuses. 

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Event Speakers: 

  • Panelist: Colleen Lye, Faculty, Department of English and Faculty & Chair of Asian American Research Center (AARC), UC Berkeley

  • Panelist: Elisa Huerta, Associate Vice Chancellor, Community Engagement & Transformative Care, UC Berkeley

  • Panelist: Kaneesha Goyal, UC Berkeley Alum; Former Program Assistant, American Cultures Center, UC Berkeley

  • Panelist: Tony Platt, Distinguished Affiliated Scholar, UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society; Professor Emeritus, Sacramento State University 

  • Panelist: Dylan Rodriguez, Distinguished Professor, Department of Black Study, Department of Media and Cultural Studies; Co-Director of the Center for Ideas and Society, UC Riverside

Event Logistics:

Feb 11, 2026, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Stephens Lounge, MLK Jr. Student Union, 3rd Floor, 2495 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
Lunch will be provided 
Questions? Please email teachingworkingtroubledtimes@berkeley.edu

RSVP required to attend

Event Co-hosts

This current conversation extends and builds from the Teaching in Troubled Times workshop series offered by the American Cultures Center, Center for Teaching and Learning, and Division of Equity & Inclusion.

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) to fully participate in this event, please email teachingworkingtroubledtimes@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible.

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