But Is It Activist?: Interpretive Criteria for Activist Scholarship in Higher Education

The palpable dissatisfaction and concerns of students, staff, and faculty—often in the form of protests and demonstrations—continue to challenge contemporary college and university campuses. Practical considerations notwithstanding, what remains are questions regarding how higher education scholars can align their research with broader sociopolitical aims to engage postsecondary education and its stakeholders in organized resistance. In this article, we offer interpretive criteria by which the study of higher education can better understand, and postsecondary researchers can more deliberately engage in, the production of activist scholarship.