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Study and Struggle

Type:

Advocacy Group
Project of:

Center for Economic Research and Social Change
Formation:

2020
Organizer:

Garrett Felber

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Study and Struggle is a Mississippi-based advocacy and educational group that works to “abolish” police and prisons and rejects less-fundamental political changes. 1 2 It is a project of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change group and promotes a radical-left ideology using rhetoric associated with socialist revolutionary movements. 3 4 5

Background

Study and Struggle is an advocacy and educational group that works to “abolish” police and prisons while advancing socialist and Marxist ideology. 6 7 8 It was founded in 2020 by activist, author, and historian Garrett Felber, who at the time was an assistant professor of African American History at the University of Mississippi (commonly referred to as “Ole Miss”). 9

Study and Struggle supports the elimination of police departments and prison systems and opposes efforts to reform the criminal justice system, instead promoting the position that “reforms are the master’s tools” and that only total elimination of police and prisons is acceptable. 10

Role in Founder’s Dismissal from Ole Miss

In 2020, Felber was terminated from his position at the University of Mississippi over a controversy centered on a $42,000 grant that the university was offered by “a major foundation” to support Study and Struggle. 11 The chair of the history department rejected the grant, reportedly telling Felber that it was a “political and not historical project” and that he should start a nonprofit organization to receive such grants rather than funnel them through the university. 12

Felber criticized this decision publicly on social media, saying that Study and Struggle serves “the communities the university violently subjugates through all its *political* work. White supremacist political work.” 13 When his department chair requested that he hold a videoconference with her to discuss this issue, Felber reportedly declined and insisted that all their interactions take place via email or some other form of written communication. 14 The department chair then gave him a one-year notice that his employment would not be renewed for 2022, writing, “Your repeated refusal to talk with me makes it impossible for me to maintain a productive working relationship with you or supervise your faculty responsibilities.” 15

Felber sued the university, claiming that his dismissal was politically motivated, and took a one-year position as a visiting faculty fellow at Yale University’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration. 16 17 In 2021, Ole Miss and Felber settled his suit for an undisclosed amount. 18

Study and Struggle Curriculum

Study and Struggle’s primary project is a curriculum of readings and discussion prompts for reading groups. The texts that make up the curriculum are largely from left-wing and radical-left authors. 19

The curriculum developed by Study and Struggle has been used in college programs at Scripps College, Skidmore College, Colby College, and others. 20 21 22

In 2020, Study and Struggle produced a series of 11 webinars in partnership with Haymarket Books, a publishing house that is owned by Study and Struggle’s parent Center for Economic Research and Social Change. 23 Webinar topics included “Abolition as Study and Deconstructing Racial Capitalism,” “Abolition Must Be Green,” and “Abolition Must Be Red.” 24

Funding

In 2022, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation donated $793,000 to CERSC to support Study and Struggle as part of the foundation’s $125 million “Imagining Freedom” prison arts and humanities initiative. 25 26

References

  1. “About.” Study and Struggle. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://www.studyandstruggle.com/about.
  2. “F- Reform.” Study and Struggle, November 2022. https://www.studyandstruggle.com/f-reform.
  3. Singhal, Maya. “Phone Resistance.” Study and Struggle, August 11, 2023. https://www.studyandstruggle.com/blog/2023/3/13/phone-resistance.
  4. “Haymarket Books.” Center for Economic Research and Social Change. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://cersc.org/haymarket.html.
  5. “Study and Struggle.” Humanities for All, September 2021. https://humanitiesforall.org/projects/study-and-struggle.
  6. “About.” Study and Struggle. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://www.studyandstruggle.com/about.
  7. Singhal, Maya. “Phone Resistance.” Study and Struggle, August 11, 2023. https://www.studyandstruggle.com/blog/2023/3/13/phone-resistance.
  8. “Study and Struggle.” Humanities for All, September 2021. https://humanitiesforall.org/projects/study-and-struggle.
  9. “Study and Struggle.” Humanities for All, September 2021. https://humanitiesforall.org/projects/study-and-struggle.
  10.  “F- Reform.” Study and Struggle, November 2022. https://www.studyandstruggle.com/f-reform.
  11.  Flaherty, Colleen. “Scholars Pledge Not to Speak at Ole Miss until It Reinstates a Colleague.” Inside Higher Ed, December 16, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/17/scholars-pledge-not-speak-ole-miss-until-it-reinstates-colleague.
  12. Flaherty, Colleen. “Scholars Pledge Not to Speak at Ole Miss until It Reinstates a Colleague.” Inside Higher Ed, December 16, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/17/scholars-pledge-not-speak-ole-miss-until-it-reinstates-colleague.
  13. Flaherty, Colleen. “Scholars Pledge Not to Speak at Ole Miss until It Reinstates a Colleague.” Inside Higher Ed, December 16, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/17/scholars-pledge-not-speak-ole-miss-until-it-reinstates-colleague.
  14. Flaherty, Colleen. “Scholars Pledge Not to Speak at Ole Miss until It Reinstates a Colleague.” Inside Higher Ed, December 16, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/17/scholars-pledge-not-speak-ole-miss-until-it-reinstates-colleague.
  15. Flaherty, Colleen. “Ole Miss Settles with Professor.” Inside Higher Ed, July 29, 2021. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/07/30/ole-miss-settles-professor.
  16. Flaherty, Colleen. “Ole Miss Settles with Professor.” Inside Higher Ed, July 29, 2021. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/07/30/ole-miss-settles-professor.
  17. “Garrett Felber.” Yale RITM, 2021. https://ritm.yale.edu/garrett-felber.
  18. Flaherty, Colleen. “Ole Miss Settles with Professor.” Inside Higher Ed, July 29, 2021. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/07/30/ole-miss-settles-professor.
  19. “Spring 2024.” Study and Struggle. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://www.studyandstruggle.com/curriculum.
  20. “Poli 148 SC – Study and Struggle: From Prison Education to Prisoner Solidarity.” POLI 148 SC – Study and Struggle: From Prison Education to Prisoner Solidarity – Modern Campus CatalogTM. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://catalog.scrippscollege.edu/preview_course_nopop.php?catoid=27&coid=67823.
  21. “Idealab Courses.” Skidmore College. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://www.skidmore.edu/idealab/courses.php.
  22. Grants and events. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://www.colby.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/colby-across-the-walls/grants-and-events.
  23. “Haymarket Books.” Center for Economic Research and Social Change. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://cersc.org/haymarket.html.
  24. “Study and Struggle.” YouTube. Accessed August 5, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcqXhvSDf0z0US7N_pBHiHNkA-KMozTgn.
  25. “Andrew W Mellon Foundation, IRS Form 990-PF.” ProPublica, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/131879954/202303179349100635/full.
  26. Tsioulcas, Anastasia. “‘imagining Freedom’ Will Give $125 Million to Art Projects Focused on Incarceration.” NPR, February 15, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/02/15/1156687073/mellon-foundation-imagining-freedom-mass-incarceration.
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