Democratizing the University, Democratizing the Nation: Student Activism and the Contestation of Control in Pinochet's Chile

Abstract

This thesis explores the history of student activism at the University of Chile from 1976 through 1985, during the middle period of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. I utilize the category "student" as a lens to draw new conclusions about the nature of resistance under authoritarian rule. I trace student activities in three organizations at the University of Chile: the Agrupación Cultural Universitaria, or Cultural University Group (ACU), the Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile, or Student Federation of the University of Chile (FECH), and the Federación de Centros de la Universidad de Chile, or Federation of Student Centers of the University of Chile (FECECH). My analysis of these organizations reveals that military violence neither ended all organized opposition, nor students' political motivations in the university setting.