Biographical Statement
Jason Del Gandio was raised in a working class family in northern New Jersey. He spent his summers doing construction and carpentry for his father where he learned the value of hard work and the realities of capitalism. In his late teens and early twenties Jason participated in various underground subcultures. These experiences opened his eyes to cultural politics and alternative ways of being in the world. This inspired him to study philosophy as the practice of existential exploration and cultural critique. He graduated from Kean University of New Jersey, earning a degree in Philosophy with a minor in Communication Studies.
Social Change
Jason has been involved with social change efforts for twenty five years, participating in the Global Justice Movement, the anti-Iraq war movement, fair trade campaigns, Latin American solidarity work, the Occupy Movement, and has an ally for feminism, LGBTQ+ rights/liberation, racial justice, and prison reform/abolition.
-
As a graduate student, Jason studied the Philosophy of Communication and Performance Studies at Southern Illinois University (at Carbondale). His doctoral dissertation used theories of embodiment and language to explore notions of "human vibes," which, to the best of his knowledge, was the first study of its kind. In the later years of his graduate studies Jason encountered social movements. Witnessing thousands of people marching in the streets set Jason on a new path: radical social change.
-
His first book, Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists (2008), earned a first place award from the Independent Publishers Industry and was translated into Korean. He has also co-edited three books: Spontaneous Combustion: The Eros Effect and Global Revolution (2017), Educating for Action: Strategies to Ignite Social Justice (2014), and The Terrorization of Dissent: Corporate Repression, Legal Corruption, and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (2014).
-
Jason’s classes help students to think strategically about social change. This often involves theories, practices, and communicative strategies for achieving social justice, and includes community organizing, coalition building, message framing, social media, direct action, public speech, culture jamming, etc.