Social movements produce a huge amount of intellectual knowledge. Yet, in many academic circles, this knowledge is overlooked. My guest today, Aziz Choudry, has spent most of his life working with social movements around the world. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University and visiting professor at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg. His newest book Learning Activism: The Intellectual Life of Contemporary Social Movements was published in 2015 by the University of Toronto Press. All book proceeds will be donated to the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal.

Learning Activism is designed to encourage a deeper engagement with the intellectual life of activists who organize for social, political, and ecological justice. Professor Choudry is concerned with “making visible the dialectical relationship between ‘Research’ and ‘organizing.’” I spoke with Aziz Choudry in mid January about his new book.