Students studying a variety of topics showcased their research on how student activism movements have led to social change worldwide throughout history at DePaul University’s 2025 Conference on Student Activism and Social Change on April 10. 

The conference returned for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic and was student-organized with the help of an International Studies faculty advisor, Kaveh Ehsani. Student representatives from several DePaul departments, Katherine Mooney, Kei Smith, JP Hanson, Rosbel Garza and Bridget Salada, have been meeting since August to bring the conference to life. 

“Our position as those who would inherit the world from the generations before us, and perhaps a hint of residual youth angst, leads us to a natural curiosity about the way things are and more importantly, the way things could be,” graduate student representative with the Department of International Studies Garza said. 

The event’s keynote speaker, Isaac Kamola, is the Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science at Trinity College and director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of the University Professors (AAUP). 

In his speech, Kamola said we are experiencing a “deep fundamental crisis,” referencing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, targeting of pro-Palestinian activists and higher education challenges here in the United States. 

Kamola said he wants to “contextualize the crisis that we’re living through and try to link the different papers and presentations together in a way that helps us see not only the particular struggle that we’re involved in, but kind of how the struggles fit together with struggles that came before.”

Kamola shared a broad perspective dissecting past social activism movements and relating them to the current administration. 

“Just because you’re a farcical, clownish buffoon doesn’t mean that we should just dismiss you as someone who can do no harm,” Kamola said. “Sometimes it’s the clownish buffoons that are the agents of harm.” 

Kamola is the author of “Free Speech and Koch Money: Manufacturing a Campus Culture War” and “Making the World Global: U.S. Universities and the Production of the Global Imaginary.” 

Students also gave presentations connecting social movements of the past to politics, policies and student movements of the current day. Simon Rafet, Maya Roman, Jack Kidd and Angelina McAdory spoke on issues in the United States and overseas. 

Rafet spoke about Lincoln Park’s history of contested spaces in connection to the Young Lords of Lincoln Park, the Lincoln Park Press and nationwide divestment movements. 

“I really struggled with this presentation,” Rafet said. “Not because the topic itself was difficult, in part it was how much I had invested into this and how much it means to me.” 

Kidd showcased their research on the South African Student Movement for Decolonizing Education after visiting the country. Roman presented as a representative of Planned Parenthood Generation Action, highlighting the fight for reproductive justice and access to contraceptives on college campuses. 

Throughout the discussion, the 2024 DePaul encampment was referenced heavily in the fight for free speech, protest and student activism rights in the United States. 

Student presenter McAdory also spoke about the power of narratives through a project that they’d been working on for almost two years. 

McAdory said they felt that some media coverage of DePaul’s encampment was misrepresenting the student movement. In an effort to document their perspective, they shared a gallery of their own images from the encampment.  

“Hearing people’s stories and experiences told by the people renders opportunity for empathetic and authentic relationships to be built,” McAdory said.“The people with feet on the ground in the resistance are the designated experts of the narratives of resistance.” 

As a participant in the encampment, McAdory said that while they were there to demand the divestment in solidarity with Gaza and those displaced from their homes living in encampments, a sense of strong community was also being built among the students.  

“Students were also saying that they’ve never spent as much time on their campus as they did before the encampment,” McAdory said. “That they’ve never felt a stronger sense of community. That they’ve never had food security like that before.” 

The conference covered concerns for international students in the wake of current moves by the Trump administration. 

“I’ve seen DePaul students come together and protect their fellow students,” student presenter Rafet said. “We as students collectively have to have that power to come together and fight it.” 

Student speaker Kidd works in the international students office, and said through the sense of anxiety felt in his job, student activism offers a light. 

“I go to work everyday and it’s like I’m walking into hell,” Kidd said. “You come see what we’re doing now and what we’ve been doing for the last year, it makes me feel like all hope is not lost and there are still good people in the world doing good things.” 

The event was sponsored by the international studies; political Science; peace, justice, and conflict studies; Latin American and Latino studies and several other departments.

Student organizers said the multidisciplinary approach was made to show unity among DePaul departments and students. 

Kamola applauds the students’ courage and persistence in a challenging time.

“What I noticed in all of the presentations that I think is really important for us to hold onto is there’s optimism, energy, there was a capacious vision of a more just future,” Kamola said. “A relentless demand that the world be otherwise.”

Related Stories: 

• Empty desks and disengagement: Rethinking attendance in a post-pandemic world
• Banned organization protests by Quad, heavy police presence
• DePaul Black Student Union Hosts Annual Gala Celebrating Black History and Culture

Stay informed with The DePaulia’s top stories, delivered to your inbox every Monday.