Week 5- Alexandra Tan- A01

In Chatterjee and Maira's Imperial University they begin with accounts of many different instances of protests at universities, particularly the UC system. The accounts include examples from both Riverside and Davis, and both have to do with both the student protests and the context behind the protests.  The accounts also include details about the police intervention and how the campus police, the "storm troopers" handled the protests. It seems the students were not allowed to express their freedom to speak against tuition hikes and other University issues. Instead they were silenced, the media covering the pepper spray incident, but not the true cause of the protest. At the beginning of the introduction, Chatterjee brings up the question, "whose university?". Is it really our University? If so, why do we have so little say and so little power over what goes on here. Chatterjee also makes a reference to how her office at the university is awfully similar to any corporate office, a topic we have covered before in this class. These articles have brought to my attention, that the university is not quite what it appears to be, and the under workings of it seem somewhat corrupt, and certainly reminiscent of empires.



Citations:

Chatterjee, P. and Maira, S. (2014). The Imperial University: Race, War, and the Nation State

Kelley, M. (2012). UC Davis Students Win $1 Million Settlement For Being Pepper-Sprayed. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/pepper-sprayed-uc-davis-students-win-1-million-settlement-2012-9