Guest Lecture - Prof. Riyad Shahjahan: Chrono-Affective Nationalism in Higher Education: Harvard and the Trump Administration
Aika
24.9.2025 klo 10.15 – 11.45
In his lecture Prof. Riyad Shahjahan introduces the concept of chrono-affective nationalism to analyze how contemporary nationalist discourse mobilizes both emotions and temporal narratives to reshape the symbolic role of higher education. Chrono-affective nationalism refers to nationalist discourse and governance that fuses emotional appeals with temporal narratives to reshape institutional memory, legitimacy, and identity. While existing research often treats affect and temporality separately, this paper argues that their entanglement is crucial for understanding how universities are positioned as sites of national decline, betrayal, or redemption. Using the case of Harvard University and its entanglement with the Trump administration’s nationalist agenda following the 2023 Israel–Gaza war, the paper shows how elite institutions are constructed as emotionally charged symbols of liberal globalism and moral decadence. Chrono-affective nationalism provides a framework for examining how feelings of loss, fear, and pride are woven into temporal imaginaries that demand emotional and ideological alignment from universities. The concept sheds light on the affective-temporal dimensions of political backlash in higher education, with implications for institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and democratic futures.
BIO: Dr. Riyad A. Shahjahan is a Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University, he is also a core faculty member in Muslim Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, and Asian Studies. His interdisciplinary research examines the intersections of decolonial theory, temporality, affect, and global policy in higher education.
Drawing from critical race theory, cultural studies, and decolonial thought, his work explores issues such as the globalization of higher education, time/temporality, decolonizing curriculum/pedagogy, and the geopolitics of knowledge production. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles across more than 40 distinct academic journals, and his scholarship has contributed to a wide range of fields, including education, sociology, philosophy, and critical ethnic studies.
Internationally recognized for his contributions to rethinking higher education through non-Western and critical lenses, his current work investigates how temporal and affective structures shape national imaginaries and institutional practices in global academia.
The lecture can also be followed online: https://utu.zoom.us/j/69356746146
The lecture is supported by the Academy of Finland
BIO: Dr. Riyad A. Shahjahan is a Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University, he is also a core faculty member in Muslim Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, and Asian Studies. His interdisciplinary research examines the intersections of decolonial theory, temporality, affect, and global policy in higher education.
Drawing from critical race theory, cultural studies, and decolonial thought, his work explores issues such as the globalization of higher education, time/temporality, decolonizing curriculum/pedagogy, and the geopolitics of knowledge production. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles across more than 40 distinct academic journals, and his scholarship has contributed to a wide range of fields, including education, sociology, philosophy, and critical ethnic studies.
Internationally recognized for his contributions to rethinking higher education through non-Western and critical lenses, his current work investigates how temporal and affective structures shape national imaginaries and institutional practices in global academia.
The lecture can also be followed online: https://utu.zoom.us/j/69356746146
The lecture is supported by the Academy of Finland
Docent Johanna Kallo