Teaching Organising in Trump's America – Lessons from Harvard

In 2025, during one of the most challenging periods in recent American political history, I became Head Teaching Fellow for Marshall Ganz's community organising course at Harvard University. With frozen federal funding, visa restrictions, and the detention of students, our classroom discussions became very real. This series shares what I learnt about organising when stakes are high and what student organisers taught me about courage in Trump’s America.

A time of political upheaval

When I rejoined Harvard's MLD377: Community Organising – People Power Change course in 2025, I expected to be teaching students the fundamentals of building power and creating change. This year I'd transitioned from supporting a small section of 20 students to being responsible for the learning of 58 students across the entire programme. I was managing staff, overseeing class learning, and helping redesign the course to build in more real-time organising practice. 

I was living and working during a political climate I have not experienced in my lifetime. Whatever one's opinions about the politics of then and now, my lived experience was of working in two very different worlds – a shift that has fundamentally altered the landscape of North American higher education and democracy at large. There were days when helicopters circled overhead, their purpose unknown for hours whilst fear did its work. Signal chats would light up with ICE alerts, sending staff and students into moments of legitimate terror followed by waves of support and solidarity.

The threat of deportation became viscerally real for hundreds of thousands of people across the USA, with increasing numbers of people at risk. Despite my white privilege, Harvard fellowship confirmation letter, and British citizenship, I was questioned at immigration and was told my name was on a list. I felt scared and, more noticeably, aware of how embarrassed I felt by my fear. I thought I would have been braver in those circumstances.

The reality we face

The current situation is stark. The Trump administration has frozen billions in federal research funding to Harvard, including $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts. This has resulted in significant medical and scientific research being halted in its tracks. Foreign student visas have been restricted and there have been demands to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes and overhaul hiring and admissions practices. This is part of a broader campaign affecting more than 50 universities facing federal investigations. Academics across the country are being fired and threatened for speaking up for academic independence. As Alan Garber, Harvard's president, has asserted, ‘no government [...] should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire.’ And yet, absolute obedience on what and how to teach is expected by Trump’s government or universities should expect to face the full brunt of federal power.

The consequences extend far beyond individual institutions, threatening the foundational principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy. We're witnessing the potential financial collapse of research-dependent institutions, with reduced international student enrolment that historically enriches campus communities, and a chilling effect on academic inquiry and diversity initiatives. Anti-DEI activist Christopher Rufo has spoken openly about squeezing universities' finances ‘in a way that puts them in an existential terror’ to keep institutional leadership in their place.

Palestinian students are being significantly targeted. At least 1,500 student visas have been revoked in recent weeks, including 12 belonging to Harvard affiliates. The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian-Algerian Columbia University graduate who played a leading role in organising the 2024 campus protests, exemplifies the broader crackdown on student activism. During our class, a student from the nearby Tufts University and a close friend of one of our pupils, Rümeysa Öztürk, was abducted whilst walking with friends to break fast during Ramadan. No one knew where she was taken or how long she would be taken for. She was released after 45 days in detention.

Student resistance continues with faculty support. In this confrontation, voices like Professor Andrew Crespo's have described the administration's actions as a ‘clear, unquestionable violation of First Amendment rights’ and tactics taken straight out of authoritarian playbooks.’

Beyond resistance – building something greater

My friend, colleague, and teacher, Marshall Ganz, calls this a rock bottom moment. We're experiencing similar pressures in different ways across the globe, including here in the United Kingdom. From Trump's return to office, Reform's electoral gains, the genocide in Palestine, to the steady growth of fascist ideology across the globe – the challenges facing us are overwhelming. But rock bottom moments are also opportunities. They tell us that we cannot continue in the ways we have been. When you are at the bottom, you have to look up.

These moments demand we act in new ways. Paradoxically, the overwhelm requires us to dig deeper into hope and to meet the potential of people with more open, curious eyes. If we are to transform this world into a place for all people and the planet to thrive, we are going to need many of us to work together. It means treating every opportunity of action as a moment of learning. It creates an urgency of no more shortcuts. All we have is each other. 

This will require us to think beyond resistance alone. This isn't about a struggle to stop us moving merely inches closer to a world where everyone's dignity matters less. This is about building a narrative much greater and more generous for ourselves and our neighbours. A compelling narrative and set of actions that are more energising, hopeful and real to people than what is currently on offer. A transformative alternative that is brave and meets the needs of ordinary people. We need to bring humanity back into our politics, which requires us to be human with each other. To remember that love and justice can be as powerful as fear and control. I believe organising plays a crucial role in this struggle.

The learning lab

I see MLD377: Community Organising - People Power Change as a learning lab – somewhere that students get to practise organising and to rehearse the skills they will need to move the world from where it is to where it could be. The premise is straightforward: democracy works best when people organise to create the power to solve problems together. Students learn five core organising skills – storytelling, building relationships, strategy, creating structure, and taking action. 

The course teaches students how to be organisers by focusing on three key questions:

• Who are my people?
• What change do we need?
• How do we turn the resources we have (the power) into what we need to win meaningful change?

The structure is deliberately intensive: two long weekend workshops followed by nine consecutive weeks of building a team and running a campaign. Teams are formed in class based on shared values. Through one-to-ones and house meetings, students build a constituency base that designs and runs campaigns with intensive coaching led by a fantastic squad of teaching fellows.

So what can a class of 58 students – mostly new trainee organisers – teach us about hope, action, and organising? What can you actually achieve in three months?

The short answer is: a lot. My understanding of organising has expanded through the shared learning experiences I had with students and staff. This series isn't a comprehensive review of the course – it's the things I found myself wrestling with the most. Like:

• Who will be the people to build structures of agency and power to fight evil?
• How do you teach organising when the very act of organising could put your access to education and immigration status under threat?
• How do you move closer to courage when fear is shaping your daily experience?
• Why are the basics of organising so challenging for people to act on?
• What makes us scared to let go of control and bring people into leadership?
• What makes a solid functioning team capable of winning change?

I'll be exploring these questions, not as a comprehensive course review or a dramatic retelling, but as honest reflections on what I was grappling with and what it revealed to me about the possibilities of democratic renewal. I hope they offer something valuable for all of us navigating this moment.

This is the first in a series exploring lessons from teaching organising during a pivotal moment in American democracy. Future posts will examine people, power, strategy, and change.