KARACHI: At the 18th Hamza Wahid Memorial Lecture organised by the Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences on Thursday, Dr Arfana Mallah, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, shed light on academic activism.

Dr Mallah, a human rights activist and a leader of the Women’s Action Forum, spoke on ‘Academic activism, its scope, limitations and future: a critical analysis’.

“When we think of the word academia, we believe it to be devoid of personal bias; it should have the ability to accommodate multiple, contradictory views. Activism however, requires one to take a stand and have a distinct option. So when we speak of academic activism, people tend to become confused about the contradictory meanings,” said Dr Mallah.

When we look at academic activism, she said, the feminist scholars of the 1960s were among the first to be questioned about their dual role of being both academics and activists.

“Thus an academic activist has become very difficult to define,” she said.

“As a broad definition, academic activists challenge the boundaries of scholarship and push the boundaries of education, social norms, systems and hierarchies; all these an academic activist will question. They will questions the settled rules of academia and are not a passive follower,” she said.

These activists will question and challenge to investigate whether the systems in place are justified. This is called a constructed identity and the transformation of the activist identity keeps happening as they keep finding answers to the very questions they raise.

“From the early 20th century to at least the 1970s we have seen a lot of activism in academia of universities for social justice and no questions were raised. However, a paradigm shift was felt after businessmen and industrialists started to [become] trustees in these universities. After 1990s there was a restructuring of higher education and the role of academic activism became restricted and was controlled,” she added.

“In Pakistan too political and economic interests have usurped activism in universities.”

Dr Mallah also criticised how activism has been given direction in academic; there is now the concept of good and bad activism.

Poet Amar Sindhu spoke about how there is considered to be a connection between activism and theory; theory inspires and encourages activism.

With regard to activism in universities, however, she lamented that in the past few years character assassination of teachers has become rampant and student politics has been repressed.

Dr Anees Zaidi spoke about how unity is important for successful activism.

However, activism that comes from among the education lot, in particular the academia, they said can shake the foundation of society and must be encouraged.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2018