The institutional work of scholar activism as collective healing in creeping crises

Academic communities situated in protracted crisis experience material, emotional, and relational ruptures that shape their collective capacity to respond and recover. This paper examines how collective healing unfolds in such environments through scholar activism, which we theorize as a form of institutional work that reshapes academic norms, relationships, and practices under conditions of creeping crisis. Drawing on a critical reflexive analysis of our experiences as scholar-activists working amid Lebanon's overlapping crises, we examine how purposive and relational forms of institutional action generate psychosocial outcomes within an academic community. Our analysis identifies five interconnected subprocesses. <i>Recognizing and Witnessing creates conditions for</i> shared acknowledgment of suffering and mutual visibility; <i>Flattening Hierarchies</i> disrupts status-based boundaries and fosters inclusive participation; <i>Building Relational Solidarity</i> cultivates trust and mutual care; <i>Mobilizing Knowledge</i> as <i>a Tool</i> leverages academic expertise to understand and address collective challenges; and <i>Regaining Agency</i> reflects how individuals and groups reclaim a sense of efficacy and purpose. By extending institutional work theory into the psychosocial domain, this study shows how scholar activism not only supports institutional change but also functions as a vehicle for collective healing in academic communities facing enduring crisis. In doing so, the paper contributes to debates on collective trauma, mental health, and scholar activism in protracted crisis contexts.