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Papers by Briona Diaz

Research paper thumbnail of Learning from Student Activists and Responding to Attacks on Critical Race Theory

Peitho Journal, 2023

This article examines student activists' coalitional leadership at the University of Arizona duri... more This article examines student activists' coalitional leadership at the University of Arizona during the civil rights movement. Through a detailed archival study of the university's student newspaper, their case study outlines how two student organizations combatted evasive administrators who maintained white hegemony through “race-neutral” policies and appeals to the “silent majority.” In response, student activists in the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Mexican American Liberation Committee (MALC) articulated demands for institutional change and built widening coalitions to support those demands. We argue that these past attempts to silence student-led coalitions mirror the current conservative attacks on teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT). Studying the rhetorical strategies of past student activists from our own campuses can help students in our classes combat attacks on CRT, which are specifically targeted at undercutting the coalitional capacities of BIPOC students.

Research paper thumbnail of Learning from Student Activists and Responding to Attacks on Critical Race Theory

Peitho Journal, 2023

This article examines student activists' coalitional leadership at the University of Arizona duri... more This article examines student activists' coalitional leadership at the University of Arizona during the civil rights movement. Through a detailed archival study of the university's student newspaper, their case study outlines how two student organizations combatted evasive administrators who maintained white hegemony through “race-neutral” policies and appeals to the “silent majority.” In response, student activists in the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Mexican American Liberation Committee (MALC) articulated demands for institutional change and built widening coalitions to support those demands. We argue that these past attempts to silence student-led coalitions mirror the current conservative attacks on teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT). Studying the rhetorical strategies of past student activists from our own campuses can help students in our classes combat attacks on CRT, which are specifically targeted at undercutting the coalitional capacities of BIPOC students.

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