Empowering Students to Fight the Power

Abstract

The mobilization of social movements within a higher education context have long been connected to one another, from the formation of the Civil Rights Movement to the recent protests over George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020. While these movements have commonalities with one another, they also have changed with the times, which include social media outlets offering new ways for people to engage. This chapter will introduce and explore the relationships between social media, activism, allyship, and identity in higher education today. The authors provide working definitions and examples of each concept to build understanding and highlight its importance to the overall chapter. They then leave the reader with a set of reflection questions to consider how these key concepts have shown up in their work with students.