Scholar and Student Wellness while Confronting Violence and Ignorance: Can we Trust our Institutions when we are Targeted?

As critical scholars of the Far-Right in Canada our work exposes us to acts of violence (both direct and indirect) every day. We are all deeply affected. From different fields (Leisure Studies, Sociology, Anthropology) and different institutions, we have had remarkably similar experiences. As students, we received little or no support to offset the personal impacts of our research programs and had to seek out (or create) our own support networks. As untenured, precarious, and student members of academic research communities, we question whether institutions will stand behind us when we are (inevitably) threatened, or whether we too will need to become victims of violence on campus before we see supportive change. This paper’s narratives highlight voids of support, and it proposes possibilities for change to sustain critical social justice research.