Why Gaza Protests on U.S. College Campuses Have Become So Contagious

Key Facts

The past week has seen a growing wave of protest encampments and other demonstrations on university campuses across the United States, many of which have been met by mass arrests and other forceful police actions, as well as intense media scrutiny.
On Wednesday, students set up a protest encampment on the campus of Sydney University in Australia.
But that still would leave the question of why this particular protest movement caught fire and spread at American universities first.
One way to understand how protest movements spread is the “ovation model,” said Omar Wasow, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies how protest movements can affect politics.