Unsettling the University: Activism, Scholarship and the Political Inspirations of Mary-Jo Nadeau

Unsettling the University honours the intellectual and political legacy of Dr. Mary-Jo Nadeau (1965-2021). It is inspired by her work in three areas: scholarship, activism, and unionism. These are the three inter-related areas of praxis in Mary-Jo’s world view and reflect the impact she left on many of us. The university was the site of much of her work, although not exclusively so, and extended into anti-poverty advocacy and Palestinian solidarity organizing both on and off-campus. Ultimately, Mary-Jo’s political work alerts us to how institutions shape our social relations across space, time, race, class, gender and community. This event consists of three panels each focusing on an aspect of Mary-Jo’s activism and scholarship: her dedication to anti-racist feminisms, Palestinian solidarity, as well as labour and academic freedom at the university. For this event, we have assembled a group of scholars, activists, friends, colleagues and comrades to discuss the current moment across theory and practice in order to reflect Mary-Jo’s exemplary integration of scholarship and activism. Panelists will use the broad themes in her work as a basis to launch urgent conversations in relation to their own work—conversations Mary-Jo came back to repeatedly—about the transformation of social and political justice in contemporary planetary life.