What now? Community Organizing and the Future of the Humanities

Regardless of political orientation, many people agree that we are in the era of what some call the polycrisis (economic, political, and climate crises all coming together).  How can we go on simply teaching the way we have been, when massive change is underway?  However, what if these changes can be thought of as a challenge rather than a stopping point?  The forthcoming (2026, Routledge) Wynter’s Queer Revolution: Community Organizing and the Future of the Humanities answers the question, What’s the point of teaching humanities in our extremely turbulent times?  This book offers a hopeful model: what if we don’t teach reactively, but proactively, toward the understandings and dispositions our students need for unimagined world to come?  The book emerges from research with colleagues teaching Community Change Studies at public colleges with Black, Brown, immigrant, and low-income students across the U.S.—framing praxis with a vision for a Community Organizing Humanities.

Hannah Ashley, Ph.D., is a professor of both English and Community Change Studies and has taught at West Chester University since 2001. She also taught community-based literacy for five years in Philadelphia before studying at Temple University’s Interdisciplinary Urban Education program to obtain her Ph.D.  (and she’s a long time PHENNDie!)

Dr. Ashley is available for professional development, workshops or book signings, and can be contacted at hashley@wcupa.edu.