Protest, Silencing, and Solidarity

Abstract: Focusing on Black Lives Matter, this talk will analyze the expressive power of street protests, the different ways in which such protests are silenced, and ways of resisting silencing through what I call epistemic activism. Elucidating the proper or improper uptake that publics give to street protests, the talk will discuss the kind of solidarity that publics owe to social justice movements so as to disrupt their complicity with injustice. The talk will also discuss the communicative obligations that institutions and the general public have to listen to protest movements and to become accountable to them.