Ananya Roy on the Shared Struggles of Scholars and Activists

Hosted by Paul Holdengräber, The Quarantine Tapes chronicle shifting paradigms in the age of social distancing. Each day, Paul calls a guest for a brief discussion about how they are experiencing the global pandemic.

On Episode 106 of The Quarantine Tapes, Paul Holdengräber is joined by Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography at UCLA. Ananya was recently awarded one of the 2020 Freedom Scholars grants. She and Paul talk about how her work as an urban studies scholar focuses on the relationship between property, personhood, and police. Ananya tells Paul about her recent experiences calling for UCLA to divest from the police. They then discuss the need to challenge the university as an institution, with Ananya breaking down the role of scholars in the shared struggles of scholars and activists.

From the episode: 

Ananya Roy: There is another kind of refusal, and that is the refusal of silence. I think one of the most disappointing things to me is how many of our professions and disciplines have been silenced—dangerously silenced—in the context of all that is happening in the U.S., worried that speaking out will politicize the discipline and profession. Well, silence is its own politics as well.

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