Scholar Strike for Liberation 2025 – On Generative RefusalsTEACH INS:Tuesday, November 18, 2025 & Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
State Repression and Academic Freedom
Tuesday November 18, 2025, 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Panelists: Desmond Cole (journalist), Shama Rangwala (YorkU), Florence Ashley (UAlberta), Tamanisha John (YorkU)
Description: This panel will discuss state repression of academic freedom and other forms of freedom in our current moment, focusing on Canada but attuned to the international context of emergent fascism.
Description: This panel will discuss state repression of academic freedom and other forms of freedom in our current moment, focusing on Canada but attuned to the international context of emergent fascism.
Active forms of Refusals
Tuesday November 18, 2025, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Moderators: Sara Rasikh (University of Toronto) and Beverly Bain (Scholars Strike For Liberation)
Description: We will hear from students, academics and activists from around the country involved in active forms of refusals against genocide, ethnic cleansing, military occupation, extractivism and more.
Description: We will hear from students, academics and activists from around the country involved in active forms of refusals against genocide, ethnic cleansing, military occupation, extractivism and more.
The International Flotilla to Gaza: A Lesson in Refusal to Israel’s Genocide
Tuesday November 18, 2025, 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm
Panelists: Dr. Suzanne Soush, Mskwaasin Agnew, Dr. Nanky Rai, and Dr. Yipeng Ge
Description: Doctors and activists against genocide who sailed with the Freedom Flotilla to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans being bombed and starved by the Israeli government speak about refusing genocide.
Description: Doctors and activists against genocide who sailed with the Freedom Flotilla to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans being bombed and starved by the Israeli government speak about refusing genocide.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
US Military Presence in the Caribbean, the Devastation of Hurricane Melissa: Caribbean Scholars and Activists in Conversations on forms of Refusals and Care
Wednesday November 19, 2025, 11:00 am - 12:20 pm
Speakers: Tamanisha J. John (Caribbean Solidarity Network - Canada and Guyana), Angelique Nixon (CAISO - Trinidad and Tobago), Kimalee Phillip (Caribbean Women's Network - Canada and Grenada), Danuta Radzik (Guyana), Christophe Simpson (LANDS - Jamaica), Honor Ford Smith, chair (Caribbean Women of the Diaspora - Canada and Jamaica).
Description: Caribbean activists and scholars in the region and in the diaspora will speak to the presence of US military ships in Caribbean waters, the spectre of a U.S. invasion of Venezuela, and war in the Caribbean region. The recent destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba lay bare the fragility of Caribbean infrastructures and economies weakened by ongoing Western imperialism, economic embargo, and military occupation. What does it mean to refuse, to resist, in this time of climate change and in the context of renewed U.S. global expansion in the Caribbean region?
After the Ceasefire? Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East
Wednesday November 19, 2025, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Panelists: Muhannad Ayyash (Mount Royal University), Nahla Abdo (Carleton University), and Beverly Bain (Scholars Strike For Liberation)
Description: We will hear from Palestinian scholars, experts and activists on what forms of refusals must be engaged at this moment to end the occupation by Israel and return Palestine to Palestinians.
Description: We will hear from Palestinian scholars, experts and activists on what forms of refusals must be engaged at this moment to end the occupation by Israel and return Palestine to Palestinians.