ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book segmented into three sections: 1, Black Bodies: Weaponizing the Personal, 2, Civility, Repression, and Academic Freedom: Bodies on the Line, and 3, Politics of Permissibility and Absurdity: Narratives of Civility. Shannon Gibney, an African American faculty member and an award-winning writer, relates being reprimanded by administrators in 2014 for teaching about structural racism. "Civility, Repression, and Academic Freedom: Bodies on the Line," the authors speak directly to different modes and strategies of repression of thoughts and ideas aimed at promoting and advocating for social justice, equity, and diversity within university spaces. "Politics of Permissibility and Absurdity: Narratives of Civility," Matthew Abraham uses a postcolonial framework to argue that Steven Salaita's tweets, which expressed anger and disgust at Israel's military campaign in Gaza, were in fact assertions of Palestinian agency and resistance against the erasure of Palestinian bodies.
