Voices of the future: Student & Youth Activism

Catalog description

This course explores youth activism from the “angry decades” (60s &70s) to “age of rage” (present) and emphasizes South Louisiana as a hub for youth activism. From Ruby Bridges’ and the “McDonough Three’s” roles in the integration of New Orleans schools in 1960 to Louisiana youth playing critical roles in the current push for climate justice, youth activists illuminate themselves as political actors who seek to create an equitable world. Beyond discussions of Louisiana youth, this course invites students to learn about the ways student activists from colleges all over the United States emerged as change agents and shifted the state of higher education. With the influx of youth activists and social movements comes the development of distinct fields of inquiry through which scholars analyze youth activists’ experiences and motivations. As the course centers youth voices, we will analyze speeches and written work (e.g., statements, petitions, credos) of activists and place their ideas in conversation with youth and movement studies scholarship, popular texts, and media about the ways youth insert themselves in social justice efforts. While investigating the ways students participate in and construct movements, we will also examine how they influence policy change. As we learn, we will consider our roles in resistance work on local, national, and global levels and how putting our knowledge into practice can help create the world(s) we imagine.