Higher education has long been contested terrain. From student movements to staff unions, the fight for accessible, critical, and quality public education has turned university campuses globally into sites of struggle. Whether calling for the decommodification or the decolonization of education, many of these struggles have attempted to draw on (and, in turn, resonate with) longer histories of popular resistance, broader social movements, and radical visions of a fairer world.

In this critical collection, Aziz Choudry, Salim Vally, and a host of international contributors bring grounded, analytical accounts of diverse struggles relating to higher education into conversation with each other. Featuring contributions written by students and staff members on the frontline of struggles from 12 different countries, including Canada, Chile, France, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Occupied Palestine, the Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, and the US, the book asks what can be learned from these movements’ strategies, demands, and visions.

Aziz Choudry (1996-2021) was Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Social Movement Learning and Knowledge Production in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University, and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, University of Johannesburg. He was involved in a range of social, political and environmental justice movements and organizations since the 1980s. He is the author of Learning Activism: The Intellectual Life of Contemporary Social Movements, co-author of Fight Back: Workplace Justice for Immigrants. His co-edited books include Organize! Building from the Local for Global Justice, Unfree Labour: Struggles of Migrant and Immigrant Workers in Canada, and Reflections on Knowledge, Learning, and Social Movements.

Aziz Choudry's profile page

Salim Valley is Professor and Director of CERT, Faculty of Education, at the University of Johannesburg and the National Research Foundation – South African Research Initiative’s Chair in Community, Adult and Workers Education. He is co-editor of Education, Economoy and Society and Reflections on Knowledge, Learning and Social Movements: History’s Schools.

Salim Vally's profile page

"Editors Aziz Choudry and Salim Vally have achieved something remarkable with The University & Social Justice, in that they have put together a multi-author collection that is a pleasure to read from cover to cover."

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