The academy can provide rich opportunities for the scholar activist through critical discourse within the classroom, consciousness building via community engagement, and leveraging diverse connections. However, the academy often upholds systemic roadblocks, at times enacting policies that further perpetuate inequities. This qualitative study takes a narrative approach to exploring the life course histories of 15 activists occupying diverse yet intersecting dimensions in the spectrum of privilege and oppression. Interviewees are uniquely connected to the academy engaging in a variety of roles and anti‐racist social justice efforts within the northwestern United States. Applying a critical consciousness framework, results highlight key functions of critical reflection and critical action as interviewees engage in critical consciousness raising (i.e., systemic root cause analysis), social justice identity formation (i.e., the politicization of one's identity), and adapting individual theories of social change. Barriers within the institution are also identified concerning the mainstreaming of service learning and university‐required diversity courses, limited structural supports for activists of color, and the institutionalized co‐opting of social change efforts. Lastly, implications for activism, scholarship, and critical pedagogy within the academy are discussed.

The protection of human rights will be critical to the success of HIV vaccine trials throughout the world. A vaccine for HIV remains our best hope to control the global epidemic. In order to launch and sustain useful and successful human trials of HIV vaccines, a partnership between scientists, governments, pharmaceutical companies, and affected communities is essential. This article provides a review of some of the key issues relevant to human rights in the design, testing, and dissemination of HIV vaccines. The article gives specific examples from three countries -- Brazil, Thailand, and the United States -- which may initiate large-scale trials in the near future.

No abstract

No abstract