We find ourselves in the middle of a decisive year in North America, an era when deep themes such as immigration, genocide, world conflicts and increased political polarization of the demand for reflection and urgent action. This arouses a critical question:
How can our institutions work as significant places for reflection and dialogue for today’s complex problems and uncomfortable truths?
I refrain from offering too simplified solutions; Instead, I will highlight the disjunction when the establishments do not engage with and examine the prospects of the students directly affected by these questions. As a leader in higher education, I witnessed the deep impact of this first -hand disconnection. Institutions are no longer delimited by their physical limits; Their influence extends beyond spatial limits. In my discussions with students, the establishment is no longer considered as a significant place of engagement on global issues but as a site of resistance.
In his recent Conference accessible to the public on race and freedomHomi Bhabha wonders why the company and its institutions are not prepared in response to questions of social justice to develop over the decades. For example, we know the models of ethnontalism, censorship and how minorities are often blamed for societal distrust. However, despite the understanding of structural and systemic problems, institutions are not prepared – both in the way we react and in our ability to assume social responsibility. I have become more and more concerned about “non-preparation” and even more on the security of colleagues and students, whose active resistance (like expressing it publicly and protest) is often encountered by disciplinary measures. These challenges force us to think about the social and political climates of our campuses and to do so; We must attend the resistance through a transformative lens centered on the student.
Students as active resistance agents
I worked with students, helping them to defend change. Their resistance to institutions in the form of events and camps is a visceral response to local and global silence and inaction. Indeed, ideas, as productive or ambivalent, cannot be disinfected, co -opted or watered to adapt to taste, neoliberal frames; Instead, these ideas explode in the hands of students – creating an intellectual tension, disturbing conventional thought and provoking uncomfortable reflection on systems that perpetuate inequality, violence and exploitation.
This active resistance must be considered as an opportunity for campuses to become fertile terrains for critical thinking and societal change. This means rejecting the desire to contain, disinfect or depoliticize ideas for comfort or stability. Instead, we must allow our students to handle ideas such as resistance tools – tools that question the structures that seek to silence them.
Indeed, the problems mentioned above, under delivery for a long time under the surface, are now exposed, revealing uncomfortable truths on the interaction of barbarism and civilization – to tighten immigration, genocide, world conflicts And an increased political polarization – force, despite their apparent opposition, continue to coexist and influence each other disturbingly. It is not just a return of past grievances; Instead, we are witnessing these problems radical transformationsShaping our understanding of history and the present in which it appears. The global stage is filled with tension and contradiction: nations are struggling with complex humanitarian crises; Political factions adopt increasingly polarized positions, sometimes to the detriment of democratic ideals; Economic systems oscillate between neoliberal extremes and reform. These contradictions are not fortuitous but are deeply rooted in the structures of power, identity and culture which continue to shape our world.
Activate the truth in power
For academics, educators and practitioners, this moment is both a crisis and an opportunity. While we sail on global cracks, we must recognize that our work does not occur in a vacuum. We are continuously exposed to the changing landscape of geopolitics, social movements and ideological battles. Some of us, in particular those who have engaged in international education, critical pedagogy and social justice, assume invisible work – plead for forced votes to marginalization, to question the structures of rooted power and strive to bring Truth in power.
However, it is not enough to challenge external oppression systems without also approaching internal dynamics which perpetuate exclusion, inequality and stagnation. Our institutions – whether universities, reflection groups or political organizations – must be spaces where various voices are heard and actively supported. This is where the role of students, often at the forefront of advocacy, becomes crucial. Their voices, informed by lived experiences and an acute understanding of global injustices, offers invaluable information to guide us in our scholarship and our practice. We must be willing to question deeply held hypotheses and to initiate difficult conversations on power, highlighting and silence, and the future that we create.
NOW knowledge, no new knowledge
The societal recognition of the temporal disjunction of barbarism and civilization depends on students’ Activated knowledge. NOW Knowledge, and not new knowledge, confront this desire for idealism and again reconstructs barbarism. However, NOW Knowledge is subject to increasing pressure when political polarization intensifies and attacks against academic freedom and critical thinking proliferate in various societies. The erosion of democratic norms, fueled by populist rhetoric and institutionalized inequalities, threatens the very foundation of emancipatory potential.
Although I do not have a complete list of actions to suggest, I also do not want to simplify the task, the witnesses and the listening are crucial. This can be done as follows:
- To kiss: Consult the resistance of students and disruptive ideas as institutional growth possibilities rather than threats of stability.
- Facilitate students’ commitment: Create platforms so that students can express concerns safely safely and initiate significant dialogue on global issues.
- Integrate global problems in services: Make sure that students’ services promote a critical investigation, challenge power structures and approach systemic inequalities.
- Think about institutional practices: Evaluate and confront the role of your institutions in the perpetuation of societal problems, ensuring that they do not just observe but that they actively approach them.
Above all, we must reframe the resistance of students not only as a response to national and global problems, but also as the result of non-compliance and non-preparation policy.