Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

4-9-2026

Abstract

In today’s charged political climate, Florida has become ground zero for anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies and rhetoric. This panel brings together Florida-based academics and practitioners who are navigating increasingly hostile social and institutional landscapes across education, immigration policy, and media literacy.

What does it mean to live, teach, and work under policies that actively undermine equity and inclusion? How do sociologists and practitioners sustain their work and identities in environments where their scholarship and advocacy are framed as controversial—or even illegal?

Through narrative and reflection, panelists share personal and professional experiences that reveal the everyday realities of conducting equity-centered work amid legislative and cultural backlash. Their stories illuminate how the growing wave of “anti-everything” sentiment—anti-DEI, anti-queer, anti-critical race—reshapes teaching, research, activism, and community engagement in real time.

This session explores how individuals and institutions respond to repression and constraint. Panelists discuss strategies of persistence, adaptation, and resistance, along with the practices of care and solidarity that sustain them. By centering lived experience, this conversation highlights both the costs and the creativity involved in pursuing justice-oriented work within systems of hostility.

Comments

Presented at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, Jacksonville, Florida April 8-11, 2026 

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