LAUSR

Sanctuary for immigrant students was an effective mobilizing strategy for universities and colleges in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. At Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, a group of faculty organized a Civil Disobedience Workshop in the spring semester to help students, faculty, staff, and community members think through past and present examples of civil disobedience. Organized as a democratic workshop, each week was devoted to a different aspect of civil disobedience, from the philosophical underpinnings of the idea to examples of civil disobedience around the world, in Portland and on our own campus. The effort to create a democratic learning space outside of the hierarchical structures of the college was a primary goal of this experiment. The lightning-fast mobilization around sanctuary campuses provided both the inspiration and the organizing basis for the genesis of this workshop.