Student Handbook for Activism: Ann Arbor

In 2021, about two dozen students came together to take a class at the University of Michigan called "Saving the World or Wasting Time: Understanding the Impact of Social Movements and Activism" taught by Professor Christian Davenport.  The class was basically about trying to understand what impact social movements might have on diverse political, economic and socio-cultural phenomenon.  As the semester was winding up, we decided to pivot away from the syllabus and collectively work on something that was "worth doing" - helping young people on college and university campuses around the US and throughout the world better understand what activism was and the different elements involved.  Every aspect of the Handbook we provide was student-led and designed.  We discussed what should be in it.  We worked on the various components individually as well as in teams.  We provided comments to/reviews of the relevant chapters.  

For the page here we decided to put together our Prezi presentations, the text for the relevant chapters as well as a video recording of us presenting the Prezi (which is forthcoming).  We hope that this document helps you better understand activism, how to select what to do as well as how to know how well you are doing.  If you have any suggestions, please feel free to provide them to us.  We will be updating this page overtime.

Signed

​The Students of Saving the World or Wasting Time
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Introduction (Erin Daly)
Organizational Structure (Sarah Schepis)
Physical Spaces (Erin Daly)
Theory to Strategy (Sara Jex)
Internet Activism (Sara Jex)
Student Organizations: Building Coalitions with Student Organizations (Riley Langefeld)
Comms and Messaging: Social Media (Riley Langefeld, Justin Williams)
Can activism change minds? (Kimberly Pulka)
Why activism and what is it? (Jackie Ellis, Mack Hurley)
Tactics Beginning (Robert Beverage)
Tactics Continue (Jacqueline Hentschel)
Time Management (Mack Hurley)
Marketing and Fundraising (Bridget Corwin, Melissa Hernandez)
Interacting with the Press (Melissa Hernandez)
Managing Transitions (Bridget Corwin, Matthew Neubacher)
Pitfalls to Avoid (Houston Scott)
Recruitment Beginning (Jacqueline Hentschel)
Recruitment Continued (Melissa Hernandez)
Movement Evaluation (Sarah Schepis and Matthew Neubacher)
Student Athlete Activism (Blake Beers, Nicholas Guy)
Student Organizations (Nicholas Guy)
Time Management (Joe Bugaj, Mack Hurley)
Interacting with School Administration (Joe Bugaj)