Abolishing the frontier: (De)colonizing ‘public’ education

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we situate the public university as a frontier where structures of settler colonialism, racialization, and citizen formation are both created and contested. We use the historical-geographical position of the University of Georgia, the first public land grant university chartered in the United States, to consider the broader implications of the settler-native-slave triad in the history of public higher education. We use these historical insights to expand upon W. E. B. Du Bois’ notion of abolition democracy and Indigenous discussions of decolonization. We animate the possibilities of abolition democracy informing public higher education through three interventions that question the ways in which people within public institutions of higher education can destabilize and work to democratize the systems that enclose land, labor, and education as private property.

RESUME

Dans cet article, nous situons l’université publique à une frontière où les structures de colonies de peuplement, de racialisation et de formation de citoyenneté sont à la fois créées et contestées. Nous utilisons la position historique et géographique de l’université de Géorgie, la première université agréée aux Etats-Unis et créée par donation foncière, pour examiner les répercussions à plus grande échelle de la triade colon-indigène-esclave dans l’histoire de l’enseignement supérieur public. Nous utilisons ces connaissances historiques pour approfondir la notion de W.E.B. Du Bois de la démocratie de l’abolition et les discussions indigènes de la décolonisation. Nous abordons les possibilités qu’une démocratie de l’abolition puisse influencer un enseignement supérieur public à travers trois interventions qui remettent en question les manières dont les gens au sein des institutions publiques de l’enseignement supérieur peuvent déstabiliser et travailler à démocratiser les systèmes qui enferment le pays, le travail et l’éducation en tant que propriété privée.

RESUMEN

En este documento se sitúa a la universidad pública como una frontera donde se crean y cuestionan las estructuras del colonialismo, la racialización y la formación ciudadana. Se utiliza la posición histórico-geográfica de la Universidad de Georgia, la primera universidad pública de tierras concedidas designada en los Estados Unidos, para considerar las implicaciones más amplias de la tríada de colonos-nativos-esclavos en la historia de la educación superior pública. Se utilizan estas ideas históricas para ampliar la noción de abolición de la democracia y las discusiones indígenas sobre la descolonización de W. E. B. Du Bois. Se discuten las posibilidades de abolición de la democracia informando la educación superior pública a través de tres intervenciones que cuestionan las formas en que las personas dentro de las instituciones públicas de educación superior pueden desestabilizar y trabajar para democratizar los sistemas que incluyen la tierra, el trabajo y la educación como propiedad privada.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigration
• public higher education
• settler colonialism
• racialization
• abolition
• decolonization

MOTS CLÉS:

• Immigration
• kwdtrenseignement supérieur public
• colonies de peuplement
• racialisation
• abolition
• décolonisation

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• inmigración
• educación superior pública
• colonialismo
• racialización
• abolición
• descolonización

Acknowledgments

Nikki is grateful for the encouragement of Hilda Kurtz and Steve Holloway to start this project. She would like to thank her colleagues and friends at U-Lead as well, especially Aldo, Alejandro, Betina, Erin, Jason, JoBeth, Melissa, Rosemary, and Tamar. Nik is grateful for insights from Cornelia Walker Bailey, Maurice Bailey, Dean Hardy, Tommy Cabe, T.J. Holland, and David Cozzo. We appreciate feedback received from Jaleesa Reed, Hilda Kurtz, Alice Hilton, Tamar June, JoBeth Allen, Brian Williams, Rob Wilton, and three anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We use the term un(der)documented throughout the text to refer to individuals who are not citizens, permanent residents, or on a work, student, or spousal visa to the U.S., but may fall within a range of other immigration statuses. In 2012, President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allows individuals who were brought to the U.S. as minors to apply for a two-year, renewable program that defers action on deportation and provides a work permit, but does not offer a pathway to citizenship. The University System of Georgia Board of Regents does not recognize DACA as a valid immigration status and classifies undocumented people, DACA recipients, and those with temporary protected status (TPS) as international students not lawfully present in the U.S. DACA, TPS, and undocumented students are also ineligible for federal financial aid (Jaimes Perez, 2014).

2. The Fact Book has been compiled annually by the Office of Institutional Research to record information on UGA affiliates, as well as University property holdings, research awards, and its strategic mission. While the Fact Book is most often used as a promotional tool, we see our use as complicating its purpose.

3. The policy was lifted in 2016 at Georgia State and Augusta University.

4. This history intersects in name and land with former Indigenous residents of the Island also informing the settler-native-slave triad. The Indigenous group most associated with Sapelo were Muskogean-speaking people known as Guale, who were a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture, and left Sapelo for unknown reasons preceding the nineteenth century that may have been the result of Spanish contact. Guale is sometimes suggested to be the origin word for the Gullah/Geechee people brought to Sapelo and across the U.S. Southeast under slavery.