With the recent conservative retrenchment, educational institutions have witnessed a backlash against the gains made by feminist and anti-racist activists. This volume examines higher education as one site of this backlash, at the same time challenging the binary framing of discourse as reactionary versus progressive, or Right versus Left. This text draws together contributors working within and across a variety of disciplines including law, history, sociology, education, literature, women’s studies, queer theory, cultural politics and postcolonialism. The volume presents contesting voices and positions on whether or not the concepts of backlash and anti-oppression can adequately explain the historical and political development of social movements and radical educational practice. Contributors include: Himani Bannerji, Richard Cavell, Patricia Elliot, Didi Herman, Alice Pitt, Howard Soloman and Aruna Srivastava.