A conference on the virtues and limitations of group membership for scholarship
Should professors belong to the groups they teach about and investigate? The question has two senses, one epistemic, the other social or political.
Epistemically, some scholars answer no to the question, for scholarship is to be objective and objectivity requires distance; a scholar close to the people she studies runs a great risk of misperceiving or failing to see the facts. Some scholars say yes, for the lived experience the scholar shares with her subjects can reveal to her the meaning and significance of that to which she is present.
Socially or politically, some scholars answer no, for the scholar's mission is to pursue dispassionate understanding. The scholar is bound to acknowledge the evidence, all the evidence, and to follow the argument wherever it goes, without fear or favour. Some scholars say yes, for the scholar's mission is to serve the community or justice. Being of the group provides the scholar with both sensitivity to the group and direction for her inquiry.
The question also raises the issue of proprietary interests. Scholars investigate the ways and institutions of a culture or a people, and perhaps those ways or institutions belong to that culture or that people. Research by outsiders might be expropriation—of either culture or voice. But then research by insiders, if only insiders may conduct research, might well not be trusted by the public, as not having been tested through critique.
Send abstracts of presentations (under 300 words) to proxanddistconf@smu.ca.
Deadline for receipt of abstracts: Friday 12 October 2018
Organizing committee: