Seminar: Activist Scholarship and Literary Activism
Biannual seminar and discussion forum organized by
INTERACT: Intersectional Reading, Social Justice and Literary Activism
TOGETHER WITH
Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS)
SELMA – Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory
Activist Scholarship and Literary Activism
TUE 20.5.2025, A112, 12.00 – 16.30
Reading has become one of the major foci of contemporary discussions on social justice. While a decline in reading, and literacy in general, has been acknowledged as one of the greatest causes of global inequality, reading- and literature-related activism is growing in many forms all over the world. Several literary projects celebrating the voices of struggle and resistance of marginalized people, seek to raise collective awareness about normative narratives in order to question and disrupt them.
Since the 1960s the term ‘activism’ has indicated collective efforts, through direct action aimed at social change: through many methods of collective and public action, activists were able to affirm collective identity, or solidarity against and opposition to oppressive structures and ideologies. From the civil rights’ movement, to women’s rights, to patients’ rights, LGBTQ+ rights, peace movements, to the most recent rise of global justice movements, we have become, as some scholars suggest, “a movement society”. In this joint seminar we gather to discuss issues such as activist scholarship and literary activisms.
Welcome everybody!
PROGRAMME:
Activist Scholarship and Literary Activism
chair: Ranjana Saha
Activist scholarship
12.00 OPENING WORDS, Kaisa Ilmonen
12.15 Bharti Arora: Politico-Aesthetics of Dalit and Adivasi Narratives in Post- Independence India
13.00 Raha Sabet Sarvastany: Literary activism in Bahai -community
13.30 Özlem Celik: Urban Scholarship in Action: Theory, Method, and Praxis
14.00 COFFEE
Activist Reading
14.30 Kaiju Harinen: Antiracist Reading Groups and the Transformative Power of Literature
15.00 Koko Hubara: (Intersectional) Daughtering, the Forgotten Parallel Concept of Mothering
15.30 Liisa Merivuori: Intersectional reading of trauma and its effects in Herta Müller’s Atemschaukel
DISCUSSION