STPEC Focus Seminar I

Preparations and trainings for Civil Resistance

Trainings in civil disobedience and nonviolent direct actions have been used by activists since the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement. Trainings normally consist of combinations of lectures from experienced activists, role-plays or sociodrama in which situations are rehearsed (e.g., arrests or police interrogations), and practical exercises with strategy development for campaigns. Recently, specialized trainings and new approaches have emerged, e.g., anti-fascist workshops, self-defense from surveillance or digital forms of mass trainings.
This course is focused on the pedagogics of trainings and the practical skills of conducting such preparations for resistance. We will read handbooks and research papers, watch training videos, and we will invite and talk with experienced educators that do very different kinds of trainings. In the classroom we will test exercises and learn how to lead a training session. The type of workshops and trainings we will explore will be relevant for many different kinds of movements, e.g., feminist, queer or reproductive justice struggles, climate justice, or antimilitarism. Two main written papers will also be part of the examination of the course: one paper that reviews a handbook and one paper that critically evaluates a type of training or a resistance campaign that utilized trainings.