New dissidence in contemporary Russia: Students, feminism and new ethics

The essay is devoted to the specifics of the contemporary Russian opposition and civil society. We describe the characteristics of contemporary ‘intellectual activism’ and the growing network of small civil and political groups in today’s Russia. We show that Russian civil society remains fragile and fragmented; the public discussion is not focused on strategies of resistance to arbitrariness but on constructing moral categories such as the wide and vague concept of ‘new ethics’. We also show how outsiders appear among contemporary Russian dissidents, who are not supported by most independent leaders and intellectuals – these are young ‘new leftists’ and feminist activist groups. These political activists find themselves under pressure from both the siloviki and the authorities, and in the focus of criticism of opposition leaders, becoming, in fact, dissidents among dissidents in contemporary Russia.

“School’s a Lie”: Toward Critical Race Intersectional Pedagogy for Youth Intellectual Activism in Policy Partnerships

Equity-oriented school improvement driven by neoliberal policies focuses attention on a narrow range of inequities. Such policies fail to achieve substantive transformations that address educational constraints experienced by multiply-marginalized youth of color. We engage a critical race and intersectional feminist examination of our pedagogy in a youth voice initiative designed to facilitate multiply-marginalized youth of color participation in district policy partnership. Our analysis presents practices that were consequential for supporting youth intellectual activism in policy conversations. We propose a model for critical race intersectional pedagogy that relates these practices and underlying ideological principles to supporting expansive transformative policy partnerships.

EXPRESS: Epistemic Injustice and Hegemonic Ordeal in Management and Organization Studies: Advancing Black Scholarship

Why do the majority of (white) academics within management and organization studies (MOS) endorse discourses of equality, diversity and inclusion on the one hand yet ignore the epistemic injustice suffered by black scholars on the other? We demonstrate how white supremacy within a historically racist academia marginalizes non-white bodies from knowledge production and dissemination by embedding epistemic injustice in MOS, and diminishing their utility globally. To expose the multifaceted harm caused by white supremacy, we reflect on black scholars’ experiences of epistemic injustice, conceptualizing their work (i.e. black scholarship) as underpinned by epistemic struggle and epistemic survival. We conceptualize epistemic struggle as striving to produce and disseminate knowledge in the face of difficulties and resistance generated by structural and agential powers. Epistemic survival denotes the sustained presence of black scholarship through compromise, collusion and radicalism. To this end, we propose collective intellectual activism based on cross-racial coalitions to eliminate epistemic injustice and locate black scholarship at the center of MOS.

Answering the crisis with intellectual activism: Making a difference as business schools scholars

Should business school scholars engage in intellectual activism? This article explicates the origin, the intellectual tradition and politics of intellectual activism, making a case for why management scholars might want to become intellectual activists. Intellectual activism has been elaborated in Patricia Hill Collins’ contributions and the work of other black feminist intellectuals and activists such as Angela Davis. Together with the writings of Antonio Gramsci and Judith Butler, intellectual activism is reframed here as a particular type of critical performativity to help scholars make a difference in the world. This article invites scholars to answer the challenges posed by the crisis of neoliberalism, and to re-articulate the values of equality, freedom and solidarity by embodying an academic praxis that is progressive, intersectional, critical and concretely engaged in the service of social, economic and epistemic justice. The article also provides examples of intellectual activism by showcasing the activities of the critical management association, Vida.

Diane K. Lewis and the Transformation of Anthropology

This chapter explores Diane Lewis’s professional life as a courageous, self-determined intellectual activist. She studied anthropology at predominantly white institutions during the years when America’s apartheid policies and practices were firmly in place. Undaunted by the explicit racism and sexism of her time, Diane K. Lewis earned a PhD from Cornell University in 1962. Her experiences with blatant discrimination inspired a fiery intellectual activism. Although critical of anthropology’s colonial influences, Lewis believed the discipline could be transformed through activist engagement by insider or native scholars. Her most influential work addressed the intersection of race, gender, and class and the impact of HIV/AIDS on black communities.

Epistemic Ruptures in South African Standpoint Knowledge-Making: Academic Feminism and the #FeesMustFall Movement

Alongside the many structural and political processes generated by the #FeesMustFall student protests between 2015 and 2016 were narratives and discourses about revitalising the transformation of universities throughout South Africa. It was the very notion of “transformation,” diluted by neo-liberal macro-economic restructuring from the late 1990s, that students jettisoned as they increasingly embraced the importance of “decolonisation.” By exploring some of the key debates and interventions driven by the #FeesMustFall movement, we consider how earlier trajectories of feminist knowledge-making resonate with these. The article also reflects on how aspects of intellectual activism within the student protests can deepen and push back the frontiers of contemporary South African academic feminism. In so doing, it explores how radical knowledge-making at, and about, universities, has contributed to radical political thought in South Africa.