Rooted in the (Youth) Movement, Onward to Liberation: Toward Radical Definition and Demands for a Critical SWANA Studies

Abstract:This article explores the ways in which racialization, movement, and knowledge creation are linked by tracing the recent history of the term "SWANA" its emergence under the mechanisms and policies of containment of the imperial university, and argues that intergenerational forums of co-thinking and co-organizing are needed as a future of a liberatory field can only be brought forth through radical collective knowledge production and action. It argues that not only does the academy have catching up to do, but that the debates, strategies, and formulations of race present in youth SWANA organizing has the potential to save and continue the radical heartbeat of Ethnic Studies as a liberatory project rooted in histories and demands specifically of students of color, in present-day and past.