Taking up Space and Making Demands: Portland State University Students Construct the Free and Autonomous Refaat Alareer Memorial Library

Abstract

Student campus protest has been a hallmark of US social movements for decades. Edited versions of these movements are lauded in university courses on historical social change. Yet a variety of commentators in traditional media, campus administration, and political administration display a calculated confusion when it comes to contemporary campus movements, particularly around Palestine. This article aims to clear up that confusion, outlining the protests and occupations that took place in spring 2024 on the campus of Portland State University and in its renamed Refaat Alareer Memorial Library, setting them in their national (and international) context, and outlining the violent responses from university administrators, campus police, and the Portland Police Bureau against students and community members who participated. We touch on the conventional scolding narrative, discuss creativity inherent in constructing liberatory occupations, and note the basic contradictions of a capitalist liberal free speech regime.