Scholars for Social Justice

Launched in January 2018, Scholars for Social Justice (SSJ) offers a platform and network through which progressive scholars can work collaboratively to articulate and support a political agenda that insists on equity, justice, and freedom, especially for those most oppressed in our society. SSJ seeks to mobilize the knowledge, skills, and resources of scholars to battle repressive attacks on marginalized communities, advancing instead an agenda of equality and justice. Issues impacting immigrants, women of color, people of color, Muslims, women,  LGBTQ+, disabled-, indigenous, and poor and working-class communities are a central priority for the organization. Moreover, SSJ is especially attuned to using the experiences of these same communities to reimagine the academy, expanding who it serves, who has access to it, and who shapes its mission. 

This agenda emerges from the view that the theory and practice of racial and social justice  must inform each other. There is exemplary scholarship on a range of racial and social justice topics across multiple humanities and social science disciplines, as well as a variety of progressive scholars at professional schools engaged in cutting edge social justice research. Simultaneously, there is a growing movement for social and racial justice in the United States, as well as around the world. SSJ was founded on many years of work by scholars, organizers, and activists invested in building relationships and dialogues with those engaged in work on race and Black Freedom Movement organizing in the United States. 

SSJ aims to build bridges between scholars and organizers in order to establish a network of academics and other scholars committed to pursuing a progressive agenda on university campuses and beyond, and leveraging the research, pedagogy, and resources of academic institutions in service of social justice movements.