UK Student Movement Research Project // 1st Symposium

As part of Sussex University’s Protestival // 20 – 22 April // University of Sussex, U.K.

Call for Papers and Panels

The 2010 protests and occupations against tuition fees reignited the student movement in the UK on a scale not seen since the late 1960s. A generation of young people and students organised in their universities and colleges, worked inside the National Union of Students, and campaigned outside of the national union too. There was an attempt to set up a separate anarchist student union at the end of 2012, and a student occupation at University of Sussex in support of staff fighting against privatisation in early 2013. The Sussex occupation organised its own national demonstration that drew student activists from across the country. Heavy police repression at the University of London led to the formation of the Cops Off Campus campaign, and resistance to border controls took place through organisations such as Universities Resist Border Controls. There has been renewed interest in feminist and LGBT+ activism, and efforts to question colonialism in our curricula.

Parallel to this wave of activism is the work done by researchers of the student movement. Bringing both closer together and learning from each other is essential for better understanding the student movement and to meet the challenges of the coming years. The UK Student Movement Research Project was set up in January 2017 to connect those interested or active in research on the student movement. The people involved come from a variety of academic and activist backgrounds, and research in a variety of different disciplines.

The 1st Symposium of the UK Student Movement Research Project will be held at the University of Sussex 20th – 22nd April. We welcome contributions on any aspect of the student movement in the UK, but also student movements around the world and analyses from transnational and global perspectives. These can have a contemporary or a historical focus.

Proposals are welcome for individual papers, as well as for panels drawing together 2-3 papers around a common theme. We are also interested in inviting those whose research presentation involves creative practices or a workshop based approach. Alternative spaces will be available for presentations, and if you have an interesting space on Sussex campus that would like to use then please let us know.

Contributions can be from academics, independent researchers and from student activists themselves. While the anti-fees protests are an integral part of the movement’s recent past so papers on this would be very welcome, we are especially interested in topics that have thus far been neglected in academic and political discourses. We are also interested in papers that link the student movement to other social, political, emancipatory and cultural movements.

Please submit your abstracts of no more than 300 words to us in the form below.

https://goo.gl/forms/XWCkvnDuUNEq1pmk2

Deadline for abstracts: 16 March 2018

The UK Student Movement Research Project’s symposium will be in collaboration with the University of Sussex Students’ Union Protestival, which celebrates a milestone of 50 years of student activism since May 1968. This will be a three day festival of speaker and panel events, workshops, music, comedy. The festival will look at the legacy of student activism and also, where things are at today. As well as presenting papers as a part of the symposium there will also be opportunities to get involved either as a participant or as an audience member in other events throughout the festival weekend.

If you have an idea for a related event that falls outside the symposium brief, please get in touch with Steph Cassin in the University of Sussex Students’ Union Events team. Her contact is steph.c@sussexstudent.com

The festival will be happening 20th-22nd April but the earlier you let us know your idea, the more time we will have to make your event a reality and as successful as possible.

While the Research Project has no direct funds with which to support travel and accommodation costs, opportunities to find cheap shared accommodation will be provided.