The Activist Academic: Engaged Scholarship for Resistance, Hope and Social Change

209 Pages·2020·4.35 MB·English

by  Colette Cann, Eric Demeulenaere

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
THE ACTIVIST ACADEMIC
Engaged Scholarship for Resistance, Hope and Social Change
“In deeply revolting times, Colette Cann and Eric DeMeulenaere have gifted us a
book that is part GPS for navigating the Academy; part glass of wine for surviving
difficult politics; and part eavesdropping, as we listen in on their conversations, re-
flections, relations and even campfires. In the main narrative, The Activist Academic
offers us a textual pajama party of laughter, relationship, teaching nightmares and
radical innovations, activist research praxis and dilemmas. We appreciate through
the pages the joys, struggles and wild imagination that grow at the intersection of ac-
tivism and the Academy. From the volume, we learn what it means to survive in the
Academy, with full heart and soul; in the footnotes, we meet the Elders, ancestors
and those who have written and journeyed before. As a critical small-book compan-
ion, the volume is a refreshing, radically honest, and comforting text to accompany
us as we carve radical possibilities in the undercommons, with colleagues, students,
activists, community members, and movements for justice. The Activist Academic is
oxygen for the researcher/scholar/teacher who dares to imagine the University as a
site of radical accountability to justice.”
Michelle Fine
Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology and Urban Education
The Graduate Center, CUNY
“With all the humor, honesty, and humility that you'd expect in a conversation
between friends, the dialogues between Cann and DeMeulenaere that span cover to
cover animate the potential and the challenges of approaching research, teaching,
and service as an Activist Academic. But be ready: drawing deeply on theory and

experience, this book will pull readers into the conversations, the inquiry, and the
unavoidable demand that we dive into the unresolvable contradictions at the heart
of being a professor committed to justice.”
Kevin Kumashiro, PhD
author of Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice

THE
ACTIVIST
ACADEMIC

THE
ACTIVIST
ACADEMIC
Engaged Scholarship for Resistance,
Hope and Social Change

written by
COLETTE N. CANN
AND ERIC J. D MEULENAERE
e
Copyright © 2020 | Myers Education Press, LLC
Published by Myers Education Press, LLC
P.O. Box 424
Gorham, ME 04038
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying, recording, and information storage and retrieval, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
Myers Education Press is an academic publisher specializing in books, e-books, and digital content
in the field of education. All of our books are subjected to a rigorous peer review process and
produced in compliance with the standards of the Council on Library and Information Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress.
13-digit ISBN 978-1-9755-0139-6 (paperback)
13-digit ISBN 978-1-9755-0138-9 (hardcover)
13-digit ISBN 978-1-9755-0140-2 (library networkable e-edition)
13-digit ISBN 978-1-9755-0141-9 (consumer e-edition)
Printed in the United States of America.
All first editions printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards
Institute Z39-48 standard.
Books published by Myers Education Press may be purchased at special quantity discount
rates for groups, workshops, training organizations, and classroom usage. Please call our
customer service department at 1-800-232-0223 for details.
Cover design by Sophie Appel
Cover art by Toofly

Visit us on the web at www.myersedpress.com to browse our complete list of titles.
To my daughters Mykah and Tyla,
for inspiring my activism and teaching me about love.
—Eric J. DeMeulenaere
To Salihah, whose activism is expressed through art, dance, story, and friendship.
To Jai, who chose to give his genius presentation
in the sixth grade on the four levels of racism.
To Roshan, who was named “social justice warrior” of his class in kindergarten.
And to Asha, who, as the youngest of us all, is leading the way.
—Colette N. Cann

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
Foreword by Margo Okazawa-Rey xviii
Prologue xxii
Chapter 1 Year One 1
Activists Entering the Academy
Chapter 2 Year Two 19
Capturing Praxis—Critical Co-Constructed Autoethnography
Chapter 3 Year Three 43
Framing Our Work in Critical Social Theory
Chapter 4 Year Four 59
Activist Research
Chapter 5 Year Five 86
Activist Pedagogy

Chapter 6 Year Six 110

Activist Service in Schools and the Community

Chapter 7 Year Seven 136
Community in the Undercommons

Afterword by John Saltmarsh 148