Beyond the border war : student civil rights activism at the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri, 1946-1954

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mary Beth Brown
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Student Activism ◽  
University Of Kansas ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Student Activists ◽  
The University ◽  
The 19Th Century

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This dissertation examines post-World War II student civil rights activism at two Midwestern college campuses, the University of Missouri (MU) and the University of Kansas (KU). Missouri and Kansas have conflicting histories concerning race dating back to Bleeding Kansas and the history of race relations on the campuses of KU and MU. This history is especially complicated during the period between 1946 and 1954 because of heightened student activism that challenged racial injustices. Race relations on campus largely mirrored that of the state's political environment, with KU having integrated in the 19th century, whereas MU did not desegregate until 1950. However, the same did not apply to the success of student activists at each school where MU students found success fighting against discriminatory practices in Columbia, whereas local business leaders and the university administration stymied KU students. The dissertation examines the exchange of ideas and strategy among students, which occurred through athletics, debates, guest speakers, and various regional and national groups. In particular, the study argues that campus spaces, such as residential co-ops and student organizations, were deeply significant because they served as incubators of activism by offering students a place to talk about racial and social injustice and plan ways to challenge these inequalities and effect change on campus and in the broader community.

“A Woman's World”: The University of California, Berkeley, During the Second World War

2008 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Dorn
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Home Front ◽  
University Of California ◽  
World War ◽  
Young Women's Christian Association ◽  
Christian Fellowship ◽  
The University

The fairer sex takes over and the campus becomes a woman's world. They step in and fill the shoes of the departing men and they reveal a wealth of undiscovered ability. The fate of the A.S.U.C. [Associated Students of the University of California] and its activities rests in their hands and they assume the responsibility of their new tasks with sincerity and confidence. —Blue and Gold, University of California, Berkeley, 1943During World War II, female students at the University of California, Berkeley—then the most populous undergraduate campus in American higher education—made significant advances in collegiate life. In growing numbers, women enrolled in male-dominated academic programs, including mathematics, chemistry, and engineering, as they prepared for home-front employment in fields traditionally closed to them. Women also effectively opposed gendered restrictions on extracurricular participation, filling for the first time such influential campus leadership positions as the presidency of Berkeley's student government and editorship of the university's student newspaper. Female students at Berkeley also furthered activist causes during the war years, with the University Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) serving as one of the most popular outlets for their political engagement. Historically rooted in a mission of Christian fellowship, by the 1940s the University YWCA held progressive positions on many of the nation's central social, political, and economic issues. Throughout the war years, women dedicated to promoting civil liberties, racial equality, and international understanding led the organization in its response to two of the most egregious civil rights violations in U.S. history: racial segregation and Japanese internment.

Student activists’ affective strategies during the 2010-2011 siege of the University of Puerto Rico

2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (11/12) ◽  
pp. 824-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Student Activism ◽  
University Of Puerto Rico ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Student Activists ◽  
Internet Activism ◽  
Spaces Of Resistance ◽  
The University ◽  
Resistance Performance

Purpose On December 14, 2010, University of Puerto Rico (UPR) student activists initiated the second wave of their strike at a disadvantage. The presence of the police force inside the campus raised the stakes for the student movement. No longer did student activists have the “legal rights” or control of the university as a physical public space to hold their assemblies and coordinate their different events. As a result, student activists had to improvise and (re)construct their spaces of resistance by using emotional narratives, organizing non-violent civil disobedience acts at public places, fomenting lobbying groups, disseminating online petitions, and developing alternative proposals to the compulsory fee. This second wave continued until March 2011, when it came to a halt after an incident that involved physical harassment to the Chancellor, Ana Guadalupe, during one of the student demonstrations. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Building on Ron Eyerman’s (2005, p. 53) analysis on “the role of emotions in social movements with the aid of performance theory,” the author center this paper on examining student activists’ tactics and strategies in the development and maintenance of their emotional narratives and internet activism. By adapting Joshua Atkinson’s (2010) concept of resistance performance, the author argues that student activists’ resistance performances assisted them in (re)framing their collective identities by (re)constructing spaces of resistance and contention while immersed in violent confrontations with the police. Findings Ever since the establishment of the university as an institution, student activism has played a key role in shaping the political policies and history of many countries; “today, student actions continue to have direct effects on educational institutions and on national and international politics” (Edelman, 2001, p. 3). Consequently, and especially in times of economic and political crisis, student activism has occupied and constructed spaces of resistance and contention to protest and reveal the existing repressions of neoliberal governments serving as a (re)emergence of an international social movement to guarantee the accessibility to a public higher education of excellence. Thus, it is important to remember that the 2010-2011 UPR student activism’s success should not be measured by the sum of demands granted, but rather by the sense of community achieved and the establishment of social networks that have continued to create resistance and change in the island. Originality/value As of yet there is no thorough published analysis of the 2010-2011 UPR student strike, its implications, and how the university community currently perceives it. By elaborating on the concept of resistance performance, the author’s study illustrates how both traditional and alternative media (re)presentations of student activism can develop, maintain, adjust, or change the students’ collective identity(ies). The author’s work not only makes Puerto Rico visible in the research concerning social movements, student activism, and internet activism; in addition, it provides resistance performance as a concept to describe various degrees of participation in current social movements.

Quaker Brotherhood

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan W. Austin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Extensive Study ◽  
Japanese American ◽  
World War ◽  
Interracial Relations ◽  
History Of

This is the first extensive study of the American Friends Service Committee's interracial activism in the first half of the twentieth century, filling a major gap in scholarship on the Quakers' race relations work from the AFSC's founding in 1917 to the beginnings of the civil rights movement in the early 1950s. The book tracks the evolution of key AFSC projects, such as the Interracial Section and the American Interracial Peace Committee, that demonstrate the tentativeness of the Friends' activism in the 1920s, as well as efforts in the 1930s to make scholarly ideas and activist work more theologically relevant for Friends. Documenting the AFSC's efforts to help European and Japanese American refugees during World War II, the book shows that by 1950, Quakers in the AFSC had honed a distinctly Friendly approach to interracial relations that combined scholarly understandings of race with their religious views. Highlighting the complicated and sometimes controversial connections between Quakers and race during this era, the book uncovers important aspects of the history of Friends, pacifism, feminism, American religion, immigration, ethnicity, and the early roots of multiculturalism.

scholarly journals Science, art, society and Klimt’s University of Vienna paintings

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto E Pereda
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Science And Society ◽  
World War ◽  
Art And Science ◽  
University Of Vienna ◽  
Gustav Klimt ◽  
The University ◽  
The 19Th Century

At the turn of the 19th century the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. However the three paintings he produced – Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence – were rejected by the university and later destroyed by retreating German troops during World War II. The story of these paintings, and another called Goldfish, illuminates common ground between art and science, and highlights ongoing tensions in the relationships between art, science and society.

University Crisis, Student Activism, and the Contemporary Struggle for Democracy in Kenya

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline M. Klopp ◽  
Janai R. Orina
Keyword(s):  
Student Activism ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
State University ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Student Activists ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Africa University ◽  
The University

Abstract:In many parts of Africa, university systems are in crisis; squalid conditions, student strife, and increasing state violence have turned many campuses into battlegrounds. Through an in-depth look at the Kenyan case, this paper examines some of the deep political dynamics of the current desperate situation. We demonstrate how in Kenya, state–university links involve attempts by higher-level government officials to control campuses through patronage, surveillance, and violence and how institutional configurations facilitate this. As the burden of repression falls on student activists who challenge current power configurations, we examine the current crisis through a student lens. By presenting and analyzing the historical narrative of student activism on campus, we show the inadequacy of overly structural, economic approaches to the crisis favored by the World Bank and some of its critics. Instead, we show the critical importance of understanding how the university crisis is organically linked to wider political processes, including local struggle over democratization of the state and economy.

scholarly journals Anatomy of Parahesperornis: Evolutionary Mosaicism in the Cretaceous Hesperornithiformes (Aves)

Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa Bell ◽  
Luis M. Chiappe
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Form ◽  
University Of Kansas ◽  
Aquatic Birds ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Avian Evolution ◽  
Modern Bird ◽  
Bird Evolution ◽  
The University ◽  
The 19Th Century

The Hesperornithiformes constitute the first known avian lineage to secondarily lose flight in exchange for the evolution of a highly derived foot-propelled diving lifestyle, thus representing the first lineage of truly aquatic birds. First unearthed in the 19th century, and today known from numerous Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Maastrichtian) sites distributed across the northern hemisphere, these toothed birds have become icons of early avian evolution. Initially erected as a taxon in 1984 by L. D. Martin, Parahesperornis alexi is known from the two most complete hesperornithiform specimens discovered to date and has yet to be fully described. P. alexi thus contributes significantly to our understanding of hesperornithiform birds, despite often being neglected in favor of the iconic Hesperornis. Here, we present a full anatomical description of P. alexi based upon the two nearly complete specimens in the collections of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, as well as an extensive comparison to other hesperornithiform taxa. This study reveals P. alexi to possess a mosaic of basal and derived traits found among other hesperornithiform taxa, indicating a transitional form in the evolution of these foot-propelled diving birds. This study describes broad evolutionary patterns within the Hesperornithiformes, highlighting the significance of these birds as not only an incredible example of the evolution of ecological specializations, but also for understanding modern bird evolution, as they are the last known divergence of pre-modern bird diversification.

The University Student Tradition in Brazil

1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert O. Myhr
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
University Students ◽  
Student Activism ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Current Student ◽  
The University ◽  
The Military

Almost every day our newspapers feature accounts of student ferment on one or another of the university campuses in both the “developed” and “developing” nations around the globe. University students appear to have become extremely active in recent years in attempting to influence policy decisions taken by both administrators of higher education and government officials. In Brazil, however, such student political activism is clearly not just a recent phenomenon. While Brazilian university students have played an increasingly important role in national politics since World War II, most recently in their outspoken opposition to the military-dominated governments of the late Castello Branco and that of President Artur Costa e Silva, they enjoy an important tradition of student political activism that cannot be overlooked. In fact, accepting the suggestions made with real insight by E. Wight Bakke regarding the causes of student activism, we find that an examination of the student tradition in Brazil helps to explain current student agitation.

scholarly journals Dalit Counterpublic and Social Space on Indian Campuses

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-156
Author(s):  
Kristina Garalyte
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Student Activism ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Student Activists ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The University

This article discusses three different university campuses in India and their political and social environments with a particular focus on Dalit student activism from March to June, 2013 and from January to March, 2014 when this ethnographic research was conducted. It questions what place the Dalit student activism, constituting the “counter public” (Fraser, 1990), occupied on the university campuses; how Dalit student activists interacted with other political groups on the campuses; what characteristic features the Dalit student activism had at the New Delhi and Hyderabad universities. This article discusses the changing power relations on Indian campuses and the role of “social space” (Bourdieu 2018, 1989) in negotiating social statuses. Dalit student activists actively engaged in appropriating social space by installing Dalit symbolic icons on the university campuses, bringing up caste issues to public attention and thus temporarily turning certain campuses into the “political strongholds” (Jaoul, 2012) of the Dalit movement. Contributing to the field of “the spatiality of contentious politics” (Leitner, Sheppard and Sziarto 2008) this article argues for the interactive relation between space and politics, showing how Dalit students changed the campus space through symbolic appropriation and, conversely, how historically constituted campus spaces affected the nature of Dalit student activism in each of the discussed locations.

Successful student activism in contemporary Italian universities

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-358
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Cini
Keyword(s):  
Student Activism ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Revision Process ◽  
Student Activists ◽  
Institutional Power ◽  
Successful Student ◽  
Amplifying Effect ◽  
University Leaders ◽  
Student Mobilization ◽  
The University

This article assesses the strategies that the Italian student activists adopted in order to influence the revision process of the governance structure of their universities in 2011. Which kind of strategy has enabled these activists to influence more successfully this process? I argue that the joint pressure of insiders and outsiders allows student activists to get their voice more effectively heard from the university leaders than when one of the two forms of pressure is absent. The ‘power of the streets’ exerted by the ‘outsiders’, combined with the institutional power of the ‘insiders’, produces a significant amplifying effect in the governing bodies. University leaders fear this kind of alliance, as they perceive that insiders with a strong tie with other actors are the expression of a collective voice that is difficult to neutralize. On the other hand, the outsiders are also aware that their collective strength is more likely to be translated into institutional power and action from their allies and/or representatives. To empirically probe this proposition, I have singled out three Italian universities (University of Turin, Sapienza of Rome, and Federico II of Naples), which witnessed high levels of student mobilization in the past years (2008–13), and where student activists and their organizations adopted the most different array of strategies. More specifically, while at the University of Turin the student activists were able to deploy simultaneously both forms of pressure, at the Federico II of Naples and Sapienza of Rome one of the two forms was lacking.

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