Leigh Patel's No Study Without Struggle insightfully explores the role of colleges and universities in maintaining the colonial structure of the United States. Patel (Decolonizing Educational Research) is a professor of education at the University of Pittsburgh and presents real-world examples for all levels of university staff, students and faculty working toward dismantling systemic racism within their institutions.
Through extensive research and interviews with social activists from the Black Panther Party and Black Lives Matter, Patel examines the university system through the lens of settler colonialism, which she states is the basis of society in many nations, including the United States, Australia and Canada. "Unlike a system based on extracting resources, goods, and human subjects from 'other lands,' settler colonialism is based on the logic of owning land" and explains how racism, property accumulation and gender binaries for example, are used to maintain "extractive power dynamics in education."
Patel argues that this settler colonialism is a direct cause of the disconnect between the ideal scenario of education being a path to betterment and the harsh reality that wealth is accessible only to a select part of society. She writes that settler colonialism explains "why marginalized populations experience distinct yet deeply connected forms of harm and barriers to higher education," and she cites many historical and contemporary examples to support this.
Throughout the book, Patel urges readers to acknowledge both the existence of settler colonialism and the importance of social struggle in higher education, and calls for universities to implement real changes instead of focusing on the superficial optics. For only then, she suggests, can true study occur. --Grace Rajendran, freelance reviewer and literary events producer