Category Archives: The Corporate University

Workplace welcomes new Co-Editor Rhiannon M. Maton

Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor is pleased to announce the addition of new co-editor. Rhiannon M. Maton, PhD is Associate Professor in the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department at the State University of New York at Cortland. Dr. Maton will join Workplace as co-editor in January 2026.

Dr. Maton’s scholarship examines the intersections of teachers’ work, labor activism, and educational inequality across Canada and the U.S. Trained as a critical scholar of education with a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, Maton’s work brings together labor studies, educational leadership, and critical educational foundations to illuminate how educators understand, resist, and transform the social and material conditions of their work.

Her research has appeared in leading international journals including Teachers College Record; Curriculum Inquiry; History of Education Quarterly; Critical Studies in Education; Journal of Educational Change; and Gender, Work & Organization. She regularly publishes in Critical Education, Workplace, and Spectre journals, and strives to reach a practitioner and public audience through the creative use of multigenre communication methods. Across these publications and others, she advances critical and foresightful analyses of teachers’ work, educators’ grassroots organizing and unions, and the ongoing tensions between a common good ethic and the structural and institutional constraints of public schooling. Her scholarship consistently foregrounds the voices of educator practitioners, organizers, and activists, while drawing attention to their collective potency in challenging structural inequities and expanding the democratic possibilities of schooling. Maton’s research contributions have been recognized through several recent honors, including the Waring & DiNardo Outstanding Achievement in Research Award, which acknowledges her sustained impact on critical scholarship on teachers’ work and labor justice.

In addition to her research, Maton brings extensive editorial experience to her new role as Co-Editor of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor. She currently serves as Managing Editor of Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, where she supports feminist, anti-colonial, and gender justice-oriented scholarship through collaborative editorial processes. She views editorial work as a necessary space for elevating the intellectual strength and contributions of the radical left, and is committed to providing one-on-one mentorship and developmental writing support to new and emerging scholars—particularly those historically marginalized in academia.

Maton also plays a significant role in curating and advancing themed scholarship in the fields of labor organizing and teachers’ work. She is a co-editor of the Routledge series Critical Perspectives on Teaching and Teachers’ Work, alongside Denisha Jones and Arlo Kempf. This series brings together scholarship that examines teachers’ labor, professionalism, activism, and the broader social, political, and economic contexts that shape educators’ work globally. Through this role, Maton supports book projects that push the field in new theoretical and political directions, deepening scholarly engagement with issues of justice, labor, and educational transformation.

Her editorial experience also includes guest-editing four special issues of Critical Education with Erin Dyke and Lauren Ware Stark, which highlight interdisciplinary work on educator activism, transformative pedagogies, and the political economies of schooling. Most recently, she co-edited the Routledge Handbook on Teachers’ Work: International Perspectives on Research and Practice with Nina Bascia, a landmark volume mapping the global terrain of educators’ labor, professionalism, and collective action.

Across her research and editorial leadership, Maton remains committed to cultivating rigorous, accessible, and socially engaged scholarship. She looks forward to supporting authors in developing contributions that deepen critical conversations about K-12 and higher education, academic labor, and radical equity-oriented social transformation.

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Workplace published its first issue in1998. Closely connected to activism emerging from the Graduate Student Caucus of the Modern Language Association, the journal’s founding editors were Marc Bousquet (then of the University of Louisville) and Kent Puckett (then of Columbia University, currently UC Berkeley). The journal was originally hosted by the University of Louisville and moved to the University of British Columbia in 2012 with the archive of past issues republished in 2014 on the Open Journal System platform and hosted by the UBC Library.

Previous editors of Workplace include Stephen Petrina (University of British Columbia), Chris Carter (University of Oklahoma), Gordon Lafer (University of Oregon), Gary Rhoades (University of Arizona), Bruce Simon (State University of New York at Fredonia), Bill Vaughn (Central Missouri State University) and
Katherine Wills (then of University of Louisville, currently Indiana University Purdue University Columbus).

Workplace: A Journal of Academic Labor is a refereed, diamond open access journal published by the Institute for Critical Education Studies (ICES) and a collective of scholars in critical university studies, or critical higher education, promoting dignity and integrity in academic work. Contributions are aimed at higher education workplace scholar-activism and dialogue on all issues of academic labor.

Tell UBC: Keep the IDF Off Our Campus

On Nov 17th at 2:00pm, Hillel UBC will host an israeli occupation forces (IOF) soldier on UBC’s Vancouver campus. This comes one week after another IOF Soldier violently threw five students out of a locked room at Toronto Metropolitan University, leaving some hospitalized. Join us in telling UBC that the IOF is not welcome on campus.

The invited soldier, Itai Reuveni, served in active duty with the IOF’s 35th Paratroopers Brigade from 2001-2004, when the Brigade was accused of war crimes including unlawful killings and collective punishment in the Palestinian Territories. In October 2023, he rejoined the genocidal IOF to escalate against the Lebanese border. He is currently a reservist combat medic with the 35th paratroopers.

Reuveni is speaking at Hillel in his role as Director of Communications at NGO Monitor, a right-wing organization with close ties to the israeli government. NGO Monitor was founded on the basis of refusing to accept and abide by human rights and international law frameworks following the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. This group routinely defames nonprofits (including student groups) that speak up for Palestinian rights.

We all saw what happened the last time UBC welcome IOF war criminals to campus during the Invictus Games. Students and staff were harassed, followed, and interrogated by militarized police around campus. A staff member was illegally detained while doing his job. This is a stain on UBC’s reputation. Shame on this university for continuing to platform war criminals who have participated in genocide.

The presence of IOF soldiers threatens the safety of students, staff, and faculty at UBC, especially Palestinian community members. UBC must commit to keeping its community safe. Join us in calling on the UBC President and UBC administration to keep the IOF off campus.

[Follow above link to send letter to UBC administration]

New Issue: Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor

Workplace #36 includes the first installment of a series on Teachers’ Work in Contentious Political Times edited by Dana Morrison (West Chester University), Brianne Kramer (Southern Utah University), Lauren Ware Stark (Université de Sherbrooke), Erin Dyke (Oklahoma State University), and Denisha Jones (Defending the Early Years).

Jelena Starcevic (Cornell University) contributes a new article in the Workplace series featuring research from the Global Labour Research Centre Symposium at York University.

Featured articles include studies of: shared governance in academic libraries by Sarah Fitzgerald, Therese Kaufman, and Jaime Taylor (University of Massachusetts Amherst); how activist resistance on campus produces a shared sense of community by Kefaya Diab (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Andrew Bowman (Independent Scholar), Bruce Kovanen (North Dakota State University), Liz Miller (The Ohio State University), and Jonathan Isaac (University of Washington); the relationship between social-well being and multi-locational work in a Finnish university by Maija Nyman, Satu Uusiautti, and Timo Aarrevaara (University of Lapland).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14288/workplace.v36i1

Published: 2025-08-05

New issue launch Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor #35 (2024-2025)

New issue launch Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor #35 (2024-2025)

Articles in Workplace #35 address a variety of labour issues on campus and beyond, including the first in a series of articles by graduate student participants in the Global Labour Research Centre Symposium at York University.

Find the Workplace #35 here: https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/workplace/index

BCCLA: UBC Profs’ perverse interpretation of the University Act lays bare a hidden agenda

UBC Profs’ perverse interpretation of the University Act lays bare a hidden agenda
Posted on April 16, 2025
by Liza Hughes

Universities are a crucial social space of free expression, exchange of ideas, and academic debate.

Universities are not meant to be sanitized from political thought or discourse. The recent lawsuit brought by UBC professors and one former graduate student in the name of free expression is a perverse interpretation of the prohibition of political activity under the University Act that cannot be justified from a civil liberties lens.

The University Act requires that universities be “non-sectarian and non-political in principle.” In our view, this is to create a buffer between government and university. It functions to ensure that universities do not become tools of indoctrination for state-sponsored religions or ideologies.

BCCLA fully supports the need to keep universities free from state interference, which is why we condemn this case. We disagree with the interpretation of the University Act advanced by the petitioners and raise alarm at a lawsuit that considers diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) values, land acknowledgements, and faculty statements of solidarity to be inconsistent with civil liberties.

The UBC petitioners allege that acknowledging unceded territories, promoting DEI values, or faculty members denouncing state violence are political actions prohibited by the legislation and that they limit academic freedom.

However, their interpretation of “political” is ultimately self-defeating. Acknowledging that you are on unceded land is no more political than refusing to do so. Muzzling faculty will not advance academic freedom. Claiming that DEI values are “political”, while other value-laden concepts like academic freedom are not, is nonsensical.

Academic freedom includes the rights of university groups to speak out about important social issues including Indigenous Peoples’ inherent rights, issues of power and oppression, and genocide. Civil liberties include the rights of diverse voices to be heard and protected through promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion values.

It is paradoxical to claim that an acknowledgement of Indigenous rights undermines the colonial state and is therefore political.

Remaining “neutral” necessarily supports the status quo, which in itself is a political act.

Advancing a legal argument that universities should be prevented from acknowledging land theft or colonial occupation enforces and enables genocide denialism.

Genocide can only occur when it is supported and enabled by powerful institutions, both in Canada and abroad. Canadian institutions have supported, enabled, and enacted genocide of Indigenous Peoples since the formation of the country, and these genocidal acts and their legacy continue to this day. Denial of these facts is support for genocide and ought to be condemned by any rights-respecting person or institution.

The petitioners use the guise of civil liberties as a thin veil to cover genocide denialism.

It undermines the very ethos of civil liberties to assert that these liberties are incompatible with free expression on important political issues.

As civil libertarians, we believe that free expression, including expression of faculty members, drives critical, constructive discourse. We disagree that it is necessary or beneficial to silence faculty members in order to protect dissenting voices.

If academic freedom is at stake here, it is a matter to be dealt with by the University itself. This case invites the very political interference that the University Act is meant to prevent.

A principled civil libertarian would conclude that complete deference to the state, enforced by the courts and legislation against a university, is an inexcusable overreach of political power.

There is no social space free from political context. Outside university walls, Land Defenders are stripped of civil liberties; small gains towards uprooting oppression through promoting DEI values are being thwarted by powerful institutions; and voices expressing solidarity with Gaza are being systematically repressed.

This lawsuit is a calculated step backwards. It is not about freedom, academic or otherwise. It is telling that the petitioners challenge these three acts in tandem. Although they are conceptually and legally distinct, they all represent a shift away from colonial dominance. It aligns with a broader global trend moving away from equity values and actively concentrating power and resources within a small, privileged group.

People in Canada have come to understand that our diversity is our strength. That there is room for all of us.

The acknowledgement of existing power dynamics is one small step towards creating a more equitable environment where true freedom, including academic freedom, can flourish.

The notion that DEI commitments are unacceptably political for the university environment weaponizes the fact that marginalized people are politicized just by existing, participating, and taking up space.

This claim is a desperate attempt to hold onto power. It is not a new or edgy idea; it is the tired and dying battle cry of an old guard that is not willing to accept true competition in ideas or opportunities. It is an attempt to maintain status quo and the privilege it offers some, not an effort towards political neutrality.

BCCLA is deeply disturbed to see a past member of our Board of Directors, Andrew Irvine, taking a position that is so deeply antithetical to civil liberties and values of liberty, equality, and justice. We emphatically denounce the notion that land acknowledgements conflict with civil liberties, or that equality initiatives that acknowledge and attempt to remedy structural power dynamics are unacceptably political.

Civil liberties are not a commodity to be horded by the privileged few. Freedom cannot exist alongside oppression. At a time when equality rights and freedom of expression for equity-denied groups are increasingly under attack, BCCLA continues to champion an expansive interpretation of civil liberties that includes the rights of all.

Anti-Palestinian Racism Has No Place on Campus

APR-on-Campus is a self-reporting platform initiated by post-secondary students to document Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR) at Canadian educational institutions. Our objective is to expose the rise of APR, which fuels systemic marginalization, restricts academic freedom, and perpetuates injustice.

APR justifies and upholds systems of oppression by silencing voices, excluding perspectives, erasing narratives, and defamation – targeting Palestinians, those perceived as Palestinian, and non-Palestinians who support Palestinian rights. It manifests in both overt and subtle ways, including physical violence, harassment, smearing, dehumanization, exclusion, micro-aggressions, biased policies, and emotional violence. APR threatens both individuals and the integrity of academic spaces. We’re holding our universities accountable — we will not tolerate racism on campus.

“Anti-Palestinian racism is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives. Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms including: denying the Nakba and justifying violence against Palestinians; failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine; erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians; excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies; defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values.”

Demand the Immediate Release of Palestinian Student Activist Mahmoud Khalil from DHS detention

On March 8, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and recent graduate student at Columbia University, at his place of residence, an apartment building owned by the university.

The DHS agents said that the U.S. Department of State had revoked Khalil’s green card.

At approximately 8:30 p.m. ET, Khalil and his wife, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, had just unlocked the door to their building when two plainclothes DHS agents forced their way in behind them. The agents initially refused to identify themselves, instead asking Khalil to confirm his identity before detaining him without explanation. The agents proceeded to threaten his wife, telling her that if she remained by his side, they would arrest her too.

Later, the DHS agents stated that the U.S. Department of State had revoked Khalil’s student visa, despite the fact that he has no student visa and is a lawful permanent resident. An agent showed Khalil what he claimed was a warrant on his phone. Khalil’s wife went into their apartment to retrieve his green card while the agents remained with Khalil downstairs. When she returned, advising them of Khalil’s legal status and presenting them with Khalil’s green card, one agent was visibly confused and said on the phone, “He has a green card.” However, after a moment, the DHS agents stated that the State Department had “revoked that too.” When Khalil’s attorney attempted to intervene over the phone, the DHS agent hung up the phone.

Khalil is currently being detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at 26 Federal Plaza pending an appearance before an immigration judge.

This significant deviation from normal immigration proceedings comes in the wake of increased and abnormal scrutiny concerning the actions of students alleged to hold pro-Palestine views. Axios recently reported that the State Department, Department of Justice, and DHS were launching a “Catch and Revoke” effort to identify alleged pro-Palestinian activists based on artificial intelligence screening of social media.

Khalil has been specifically and discriminatorily targeted by Columbia University for his Palestinian identity and outspoken activism on multiple occasions over the last 17 months. He served as a lead negotiator during the Gaza Solidarity Encampment last spring. He has frequently appeared in media interviews and press conferences. The university suspended him while he was on a student visa and reversed it within the same day.

Columbia University has published guidance on how best to collaborate with federal enforcement, including advising faculty and staff “not to interfere” with ICE agents even if those agents are unable to present a warrant. Over the last few days, there have been several reports of ICE agents approaching pedestrians and students in the neighborhood surrounding Columbia University’s Morningside campus, creating unsafe environments for students (particularly students of color), regardless of their immigration status.

Columbia’s continued acquiescence to federal agencies and outside partisan institutions has made this situation possible. A Palestinian student and member of the community has been abducted and detained without the physical demonstration of a warrant or officially filed charges. Like many other Arab and Muslim students, Khalil has been the target of various zionist harassment campaigns, fueled by doxxing websites like Canary Mission. This racist targeting serves to instill fear in pro-Palestine activists as well as a warning to others.

An activist familiar with Khalil’s solidarity work said, “Mahmoud is foundational to our community. The state has escalated its repression of students for opposing the U.S.-backed genocide in Palestine, in which all American universities are complicit. However, the students will continue to rally for Palestine and against state violence.”

Detaining students for their activism violates the first amendment and is a threat to all people of conscience. ICE must immediately release Mahmoud Khalil from detention.

Sign the petition below to demand the immediate release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil from DHS detention.

Open Letter: UBC Protects War Criminals and Terrorizes Community

Via UBC Staff for Palestine:

On February 14th, while “israeli” occupation forces were swimming in the Aquatic Centre, UBC staff member and alum Nathan Herrington was abducted by armed RCMP state agents, handcuffed, searched, and locked in the back of a van for 30+ minutes.

Nathan was doing his job.
He was wearing a keffiyeh.
And he was “detained for mischief.”

It could have been you. It could have been anyone. Without action, it will be.

These incidents are only getting more common in university communities.

The UBC administration has refused join faculty, staff, and students who have called for an end to UBC’s complicity in “israeli” war crimes. Instead, faculty are removed from teaching assignments, staff members are kidnapped, student spaces are abused for militarized surveillance, armed officers demand that students violate their journalism ethics, and anti-discrimination educational resources are removed from the internet. Where will it end? Any UBC administration that permits or encourages these behaviours is a danger to our community.

Please sign and share the open letter “UBC Protects War Criminals and Terrorizes Community” in solidarity with Nathan and the UBC community.

And, if you have not yet signed the petition for UBC to Divest from Corporations Fueling Genocide and Occupation, we urge you to do so!

In Solidarity,
UBC Staff for Palestine

Universities should not invest in genocide and occupation

UBC is currently invested in at least 30 corporations that fuel genocide, occupation, and systemic human rights violations. These include 17 weapons and military technology companies and 13 corporations listed in the UN Database of Enterprises Involved in Illegal Israeli Settlements.

What’s at Stake?

In Palestine and Lebanon: Over 44,000 Palestinians and 3,500 Lebanese civilians have been killed since October 2023 by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Thousands face

starvation and disease due to blockades and relentless attacks.

Beyond the region: The same corporations profit from wars worldwide, the militarization of borders, forced family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border, and countless other atrocities.

As students, faculty, and community members, we have the power to demand change. By signing the petition, you are urging UBC to take responsibility for its investments.

We demand that UBC:

Commits to divesting from these companies

Establishes ethical investment policies that uphold justice and human rights

Visit UBCDivest.org to learn more, read the petition, and sign as a student, alumni, faculty, staff, donor, family member who supported a student, or other community member with financial ties to the university.

Sign the petition now and add your voice to the growing call for divestment!

We also encourage you to share this petition with your networks. Together, we can hold UBC accountable and push for a future free from investments in war and occupation.

Thank you for your support,

UBCDivest