You Are Not a Loan
Feinberg Series Film Screening
In February 2020, filmmaker and Debt Collective co-founder Astra Taylor assembled a group of activists and academics to discuss the crisis of higher education and next steps for the growing movement to cancel student debt and make college and university tuition-free. Released by The Intercept in January 2021, You Are Not a Loan is a record of that encounter.
Collectively, the U.S. public owes a total of $1.7 trillion in education debt. How did we get to this point? What would truly free college—meaning both without cost and aimed at liberation—be like? How have racism and capitalism sabotaged public education as we know it? What do we mean by the word “public”? Where is our power to change things?
Taylor writes, “You Are Not a Loan puts current events and the deepening crisis of higher education into a broader context. It explores past decisions that set us on our current path while pointing toward a utopian horizon we can still reach for—a horizon where education is decommodified and democratized, available to all who want to learn. Most importantly, it offers a reminder that we will only shift course if regular people organize and fight back.”
The Debt Collective is a debtors’ union fighting to cancel debts and to build a world where college is publicly funded, healthcare is universal, and housing is guaranteed for all.
This screening will be followed by a panel discussion on Thursday, March 6 with filmmaker and Debt Collective co-founder Astra Taylor and South African academics and organizers Leigh-Ann Naidoo and Kelly Gillespie (moderator) for a conversation on student debt, the crisis of global capitalism, and global movements fighting to end debt and transform higher education.
View full details on the Feinberg Series website
The 2024-25 Feinberg Series
What Are Universities For? Struggles for the Soul of Higher Education
The 2024-25 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series explores the historical roots of present-day political, economic, and ethical crises in higher education. It is presented by the UMass Amherst Department of History in partnership with numerous co-sponsors. The Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series is made possible thanks to the generosity of UMass Amherst history department alumnus Kenneth R. Feinberg ’67 and associates.
Departmental (co)sponsorship of various types of events does not constitute an endorsement of the views expressed by the presenters, either at the events in question or in other venues. Rather, sponsorship is an endorsement of the exploration of complex and sometimes difficult topics. The UMass History Department is committed to promoting the free and peaceful exchange of ideas, one of the most important functions of the university.