Call For Papers: American Anthropological Association
Annual Conference: Chicago, Illinois – November 20th – 24th, 2013
Panel Title: The New “Youth Movements”: Political Subjectivity, Crisis, and Resistance
Panel Organizers: Manissa McCleave Maharawal (mmaharawal@gc.cuny.edu), CUNY Graduate Center; Zoltán Glück, (zgluck@gc.cuny.edu), CUNY Graduate Center
In late October, 2011 Egyptian activists wrote a solidarity letter to Occupy Wall Street in which they stated: “an entire generation across the globe has grown up realizing, rationally and emotionally, that we have no future in the current order of things,” (Guardian 2011). Identifying a commonality in their struggles, the letter expresses a blunt urgency; that their generation is going to have to create “what we can no longer wait for” (ibid). This urgency was also seemingly felt by thousands around the world as youth-led movements over the past two years have toppled governments from Tunis to Montreal. Within these movements, and in their wake, new forms of political practices, political identities, and solidarities have emerged and begun to change the way that young people facing dire social and economic challenges understand their lived reality. Youth worldwide continue to be hit the hardest by the global economic turbulence and job crises (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2012) and are slated for continued economic struggles. However, as shown by their overwhelming participation in various political struggles around the globe, youth are challenging these conditions in a myriad of complex and organized ways. Continue reading
The SituationSince the current government came into power in 2010, changes in the education system have been generally characterized by centralization, state control, overregulation and questioning of the role of the intelligentsia and the importance of higher education. 
