Dr. Sara Hardman has a book coming out in fall 2026. The book is titled Teacher Strikes as Education: Examining the Political-Aesthetic Lessons of the West Virginia Teacher Strikes of 2018-19, and it will be published with Bloomsbury Academic. In this book, Hardman examines the aesthetic experiences of West Virginia teachers on strike in 2018 and 2019.  Hardman employs a political-aesthetic framework to assess the impact of the embodied, affective, and aesthetic dimension of the strikes, rather than the tangible outcome of the strikes (e.g. pay conditions or redundancies). She argues that the intangible outcomes of teacher strikes comprise a political-aesthetic education that expands the possibilities for how teachers can live and educate within a neoliberal and patriarchal context. The book presents new research that brings together teachers’ written and spoken narratives, media stories, podcasts, videos, and images. Hardman argues that teachers performed counter-conduct against particular characteristics expected of them under neoliberalism and patriarchy and that this aesthetic experience opened the door for teachers to adopt alternative ways of being, even without dismantling these systems of power. Drawing on the theoretical work of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Yuriko Saito, and Richard Shusterman, among others, this book is for researchers and students interested in teacher strikes, social movements, and activism in education, as well as for those interested in the intersection of the political and the aesthetic.

Dr. Hardman will present this work in an author-meets-critic panel during colloquium on Thursday, October 22, from 5:30-7:00pm.