Call for Contributors: Undergraduate Experiences of Pandemic and Protest

Our current unprecedented health crisis and social unrest is the result of hundreds of years of government-enforced white supremacy and politicians’ efforts to protect business interests over human lives. As a result of the Covid health crisis, faculty, graduate workers, and undergraduates have faced unprecedented teaching, learning, and labor challenges. The pandemic has exacerbated and drawn attention to already existing class and racial inequities. Now, with the police murder of George Floyd as the spark, unprecedented numbers of people have taken to the streets to reckon with our country’s long standing issues of racism, white supremacy, and state oppression. 

In response to this moment, higher ed journals and social media have been flooded with necessary articles that explain the challenges of teaching and living in a post-Covid world, as well as Black faculty experiences of racism in the academy. Yet, the circumstances and experiences of undergraduates have been largely left out of these popular discussions. 

The July issue of The Activist History Review seeks to center the experiences of undergraduates who have been forced to socially distance, physically relocate, and accommodate a new online learning environment while also confronting their government’s role in maintaining white supremacy. We encourage undergraduate students to submit proposals related to the following topics:

• New challenges you have faced or opportunities you have discovered during the pandemic.
• How race, sexual orientation, disability, mental health challenges, gender expression or identity, and/or class have impacted your experiences of living and learning under Covid, or your relationship to the protests against police violence across the nation.
• How the current moment has informed your awareness of existing societal inequities.
• The way your relationships with professors, graduate students, or learning has changed during this pandemic.
• How the pandemic and protests have altered your professional or academic goals and expectations.

To submit a proposal for this TAHR issue, please send an email to activisthistory@gmail.com with (1) a short bio including your name, where you attend or attended school, what subject you study, your interests, and anything else of interest AND (2) a short proposal of what you plan to write about (about half a page). Your final submission can be anywhere between 500-1,000 words (2-4 pages). 

The deadline for submitting proposals is Sunday, June 21, 2020 at midnight EST. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by email, and we would be happy to work with you.

** We will be offering a small stipend to contributors who are queer and/or trans Black Brown Indigenous People of Color (QTBBIPOC). Please indicate if you identify as such in your email. **