Challenging the "We" in Academia Activist Cases of Resistance

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Published: Aug 5, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14288/workplace.v36i1.187074
Keywords:
Activism, Labor, Academia, Institutions, Resistance

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Kefaya Diab
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Andrew Bowman
Independent Scholar
Bruce Kovanen
North Dakota State University
Liz Miller
The Ohio State University
Jonathan Isaac
University of Washington

Abstract

This paper examines institutionalizing practices in academia that invoke a shared sense of community through a collective “we.” Heightened in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, institutional invocations of community are questioned across several cases that illuminate a variety of dimensions of marginalization and how academic workers responded.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 36 No. 1 (2025): Teachers’ Work in Contentious Political Times (Special Series, Part 1) + GLRC Symposium + Featured Articles & Commentary
Section
Articles
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Author Biographies

Kefaya Diab, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Dr. Kefaya Diab is an activist-scholar-educator. From her position as an Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at UNC Charlotte, she devotes her research, teaching, and service to promoting social justice locally, nationally, and globally. Her work has appeared in Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Writing Spaces, Composition Studies, Sexual Harassment and Cultural Change in Writing Studies, Community Literacy, and Paidea 16. She received the 2022 Charles Kneupper’s Award for her RSQ article “The Rise of the Arab Spring through a Sense of Agency.” In teaching, she embodies critical pedagogy and antiracist writing assessment approaches informed by Paulo Freire and Asao Inoue. 

Andrew Bowman, Independent Scholar

Andrew Bowman is a Staff Organizer with the Campus Faculty Association, a labor advocacy organization and organizing committee fighting for tenure-stream faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His scholarship since leaving academic employment is in labor studies and activism. As a graduate student, he served with co-author Bruce Kovanen in the Graduate Employees' Organization Local 6300, which is where he first started union work, and began his organizing career.

Bruce Kovanen, North Dakota State University

Bruce Kovanen is an Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Upper Division Writing Program at North Dakota State University. His research and teaching interests are located across literate activity, labor studies, and embodied semiosis. As a graduate student, he was actively involved with the Graduate Employees’ Organization Local 6300, serving as co-president, grievance officer, and officer-at-large. His current research project examines the literate activities of a graduate worker union’s bargaining team as they engage in contract negotiations with university administrators.

Liz Miller, The Ohio State University

Liz Miller is a Senior Lecturer for the English department at The Ohio State University, where she teaches classes on writing, rhetoric, disability, and video games. Her work often focuses on intersections between academic labor, mental health, and ethics of care. Completed in 2022, her dissertation approaches these topics from a standpoint rooted in materialist rhetorics.

Jonathan Isaac, University of Washington

Jonathan Isaac is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Washington and Director of the Program for Writing Across Campus. His research and teaching focus on interdisciplinary writing, rhetoric, labor, and place.