Revisiting Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual: A Roundtable for Perspectives on Academic Activism
Forkert, Kirsten 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7938-3475, Huxtable, Jason ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7596-3122, Nahaboo, Zaki ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3364-0269, Nulman, Eugene ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3358-9144, Wilde, Poppy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3334-059X and Windsor, Esther
(2022)
Revisiting Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual: A Roundtable for Perspectives on Academic Activism.
Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education, 4 (2).
pp. 167-186.
ISSN 2578-5761
Abstract
In this roundtable discussion, we revisit Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual (1993) as a departure for examining how and where academic activism can take place. This is situated both within and apart from existing public struggles, including #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) and other current movements. Academic activism will be explored as an intellectual project that may at times problematise notions of the public, the intellectual, and the activist. We will examine how academic activism contributes to activist projects, while also interrogating how “public” representational claims are made. This includes important questions: who is responsible for publics that are not yet constituted as such? What voices are not yet heard, seen, or understood? And what is the role of academic activists in relation to these? This in turn raises ethical questions of how to represent and be accountable to the disadvantaged and/or subaltern. In addressing these issues, the roundtable will explore activism both inside and outside the classroom, offering various figurations of academic activism. The discussion will draw on the participants’ experiences of university teaching and popular education within local contexts, as members of staff at Birmingham City University in the UK.
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