The City University of New York’s ‘Global Antifa’ course promotes far-left revolutionary activism as a form of academic ‘research.’

A City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center English course titled “Global Antifa” focuses on “militant co-research” and students developing their own “research projects that contribute to the work of global movements fighting fascism.”

The course syllabus, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, states that it “begins from the premise that racialized and colonized peoples have been at the forefront of theorizing, challenging, and dismantling fascism, white supremacy, and other modes of authoritarian rule over the last century.” The seminar “surveys and draws on these antifascist traditions, linking them to a deep engagement with racial justice, anti-imperialist movements, intersectional feminism, and an analysis of the changing character and contradictions of capitalism.”

Course learning goals include familiarizing “students with contemporary theories of fascism and antifascism, as well as related critical theories concerning racial capitalism, gender & sexuality, imperialism, etcetera,” exploring the “ways in which the realm of aesthetics in general, and, more specifically, particular domains such as literature and visual culture, relate to fascism and antifascism,” and discussing “various research methodologies, with a focus on histories and examples of militant co-research research.:

The “course requirements” section states that space is given “to alternative forms of research, including collaborative/collective work, militant research, and methodologies that combine analysis and imagination.” Students are invited to “produce discursive forms aimed at diverse audiences, and to think about the most efficacious ways to mobilize and disseminate knowledge around the crises of contemporary capitalism, liberal democracy, authoritarian populism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and eco-fascism, among other issues.”

Course texts include a collection of far-left readings on “Colonial Fascisms,” “Black Marxist Antifascism,” “Queer Antifa,” and “Eco-Fascism and Border Abolition.” Students will also read excerpts from Angela Davis, Patrisse Kahn Cullors, and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.

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In 2024, Professor Ashley Dawson was named a Social Practice CUNY (SPCUNY) Fellow for The Peaker Project. The SPCUNY Fellowship program is “designed to bring together the resources of academic research institutions and the activism of creative practitioners, mobilize CUNY’s interdisciplinary arts fields, and help diversify M.F.A. graduates in New York City.”

The SPCUNY Fellowship program receives funding from the Mellon Foundation.

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What is Militant Co-Research?

According to an academic paper, Militant Research, or Co-Research, is a collaborative methodology where the “researcher must become an active participant in a political movement, while still doing research – it essentially means devoting lots of time to working as an activist or as an organiser.” It also “challenges academic structures and ways of knowing that are built on extractive research approaches and methods” and “seeks different ways to generate knowledge, with a particular focus on processes and methods, and it offers a blurring of the boundaries between activism/organising and research, between researcher and researched, and between theory and practice.”

In other words, Militant [Co-] Research is the development of radical activist practices and tactics (praxis) while engaging in those far-left political activities. It is revolutionary street activism masquerading as “academic” or action research.

The document further states that Militant Researchers are “anti-capitalist at a minimum” and that the approach “argues that capitalism and the various interlocking systems of oppression that accompany capitalism (including imperialism, colonialism, racism, and patriarchy) have created significant harm.”