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About Justin AK Helepololei

My research is interested in the theorization and practice of social change, with an emphasis on direct action practices that challenge what is defined as political. I'm especially drawn to what Asef Bayat (2010) has called social "non-movements" - dispersed, daily encroachments on public and private space that quietly, but radically, effect change.
I'm interested in discussions of the potential contributions (and limitations) of academic scholarship for aiding such efforts. Most recently I've been hanging out in various occupations in Barcelona and other sites throughout Southern Europe, trying to get an idea of how internal difference is negotiated among direct action communities, if, and when decide to work with more traditional social movement organizations and how strategies are formed in response to repression.
I've worked previously with migrant rights and direct aid organizations on the US-Mexico border, and conducted ethnographic fieldwork among Chican@ student activists in Phoenix, Arizona.

Positions

Present Graduate Student, University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Curriculum Vitae



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Honors and Awards

  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow 2012-2015