Decolonizing Or Doing the Best With What We Have? Feminist University-Community Engagement Outside WGSS Programs

Authors

  • Nafisa Tanjeem Lesley University
  • Michael Illuzzi Political Science, Lesley University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v8i2.70779

Keywords:

Feminist community engagement, neoliberal university, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, service-learning, decolonizing

Abstract

Feminist scholars and activists have a long history of integrating feminist praxis in the curriculum through community engagement initiatives. Using feminist critiques, they have investigated possibilities as well as limitations of these initiatives in neoliberal universities (Boyd & Sandell, 2012; Costa & Leong, 2012; Dean et al., 2019; Johnson & Luhmann, 2016; Kwon & Nguyen, 2016). Nevertheless, most of the existing studies focus on feminist community engagement within institutionalized Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) departments, programs, and courses. This article demonstrates how feminist community engagement can expand its scope outside the institutional boundaries of WGSS programs. It contributes to the existing feminist literature in several ways. First, it explores how feminist and decolonial praxis can manifest in a non-WGSS setting and the resulting challenges and possibilities that arise. Second, it argues that the transition from traditional service learning to feminist and decolonial community engagement is a complex, contentious, and iterative process rather than an end goal. Lastly, it elaborates on how faculty can not only avoid the tendency of “learning elsewhere” and framing the community as “unprivileged Other” but also build and organize with community through creative subversion of various structures of the neoliberal university. 

Author Biographies

Nafisa Tanjeem, Lesley University

is an Associate Professor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Worcester State University. Her research and teaching interests include transnational, postcolonial, and decolonial feminisms; critical race theory; globalization and feminist politics; and transnational social justice movements with a specific focus on the United States and South Asia. 

Michael Illuzzi, Political Science, Lesley University

Michael J. Illuzzi is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Lesley University and the Director of the Lesley CLAS Honors Program, which has a focus on critical community engagement. His research and teaching interests include political theory, political peoplehood, racial, gender, and class inequalities, and critical community engagement.

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Published

2022-11-26

How to Cite

Tanjeem, N., & Illuzzi, M. (2022). Decolonizing Or Doing the Best With What We Have? Feminist University-Community Engagement Outside WGSS Programs. Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning, 8(2), 110–119. https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v8i2.70779

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