Politics in/and/of the University: A Reading and Discussion Group

Students, faculty, staff, and community members are invited to participate in Politics in/and/of the University: A Reading and Discussion Group this academic year. Inspired by the Popular University for Gaza encampments and their call to transform the university, this reading and discussion group aims to be a space for regular, sustained, historically grounded, and theoretically rich inquiry into politics in/and/of the university (as well as the myriad other prepositional relations between the two terms). By confronting these central questions across disciplines and across locations within the contemporary US university, we seek new ways of theorizing our own standing and our own responsibility as students, educators, and community members in the university—and, as a result, in the present writ large.

The reading and discussion group will meet weekly on the University of Chicago campus beginning October 9th. Autumn quarter discussions will center on what (and who) the university is, winter quarter will ask what the university does, and spring quarter will ask what the university ought to do. While most of the sessions will involve reading academic and activist literatures on these topics, we also plan to screen some documentaries and invite past campus activists as speakers, and we will have snacks!

To express your interest in joining the reading and discussion group, please contact Anwār Omeish.

Politics in/and/of the University is organized by Anwār Omeish and supported by the 2025–26 3CT Graduate Student Fund.