Criticisms of indig'n here:
1. Can't question stuff now / threat to open inquiry
2. Threat to proper science
3. Hire/admit based on race
1. Can't question stuff now / threat to open inquiry
2. Threat to proper science
3. Hire/admit based on race
1. Open Inquiry? There was a prob when unis didn't talk about indig issues. Best way to get inquiry is to get academics to studying a topic.
Is there more or less interrogation of identities since we've had women's studies departments? Answer: unambiguously more.
I mean do we think all academic feminists agree with each other now? I thought he criticism was they can't agree on what feminism is?
Best way to stifle knowledge and debate on indig issues is to keep it outside unis altogether. Pro-indig'n people are on side of openness.
But are we forced to celebrate rather than criticize? Hahaha do you know academics? We will criticise. We can't help ourselves.
2. Threat to proper science. Concern seems to be chem profs might be forced to not teach chem anymore but instead teach indig religion?
Not happening. No-one wanting indig'n is coming for your academic freedom to teach chem as you see fit. What are they saying?
"Hey we may know some stuff that might be relevant. And if we do and you use it could you please give us credit?" That's just good research.
It's (a) being open to new ideas & doing background research and (b) citing your sources. But academics have often failed on this, esp (b).
The article cites cases where indig knowledge helps research. This stuff should be taught (where relevant). Is it? Probably not enough.
Similar issues arise re erasing contrib's of women. We have an image of who's an expert, systems to certify them & incentives to maintain it
That again tends to reduce, not expand, free and open inquiry.
Ok but will academics be forced to give too much respect to indigenous cultural/religious traditions? Well at student level, yeah we have to
We are required to make religious accommodations. Of course the biggest accomm is holidays on Christmas, Easter, no school on Sundays etc.
Are we going to get rid of those? No? Then we should be fair to students from other religions. (This sucks for atheists - sorry guys!)
But we've been slow to do that, esp for indigenous people whose religious/cultural practices we've been ignorant of or hostile to.
What about in the classroom? Are we going to have to teach indig religion in science class? Again, no. No-one is coming for your chem class.
Biggest relig threat to teaching sci in Can/US? Creationist Christianity. But people worried about indig'n rarely seem to discuss that. Why?
An econ colleague of mine once taught a course on Econ Inequality. A third of the course was 'The Judeo-Christian approach to inequality'.
That had no relevance to economics. Would it be a threat to science if instead he'd included 'Indig approaches to inequality'?
And if he had done that, how much complaining would there have been about irrelevance, lack of expertise, pc culture infiltrating campus?
Bottom line. No-one's going to tell you to do bad or teach bad science. If anything they want you to do it better and be more open minded.
3. Hire/admit based on race. Two bits here, admissions and hiring. Admissions first. Indig kids have much lower ed outcomes than non.
Historical & current disadvantage, poor resourcing at schools, etc play a role. If unis are for best&brightest we should take that on board.
Ie, there's a case for affirmative action. Note we have other types of this - eg lower grade reqs for athletes (Can) or legacy pts (US).
It's fine to debate whether prefs in admissions are ok, but let's look at all of them. If you're worried about indig prefs, why not others?
Re hiring. I said earlier unis have a system for certifying experts. Look at language dep'ts. Once they were full of non-native speakers.
Japanese novelists couldn't get jobs in Japanese dep'ts (even with fluent English). No PhD. Maybe could have tutores. This seems suboptimal.
Gatekeeping/credentialism is essential (I don't want unis teaching creationist geology!), but can also restrict knowledge & open inquiry.
These days Japanese dep'ts have more native speakers. It's made them better. Having more indigenous people brings new ideas & knowledge too.
Should non-indig people study indig issues? Well yes, that's a big part of the indig'n push. Should they teach it? There's debate on that!
Obv profs shouldn't teach stuff they don't know. This is a prob for talking about indig issues in most classes coz most of us aren't experts
The Martha Walls case at MSV was different. She's clearly qualified but not indig. What then? Some said ideally there'd be an indig prof
available. Others that she would do a good job and anyway there are no indig profs available. So much like the Japanese case -
Having more indig profs to teach and research this stuff would be better! How do we do that? Changing our view on who is an expert may help.
But that's really hard for unis - we are gatekeepers! Credentials! So maybe it will only happen if there are a few reserved positions.
I don't like that idea much. I like to believe in merit & am a gatekeeper by nature. But evidence is different views improves open inquiry.
So there's a case there are important benefits, and cost seems relatively low - a couple of reserved positions won't destroy the academy.
And re Walls case - surely this is an eg of things working? There was an open debate with many views put forward & MSV made a decent call?
And that brings me back 1. Behind everything is a complaint that free speech is at risk. But the examples actually demonstrate the opposite.
The MSV case - lots of debate, MSV listened. Pigliucci - HE IS PUBLISHING A BOOK. Widdowson's silenced? She has a job, is quoted all over ..
published a book that was shortlisted for Donner Prize! Good unis interrogate identity? So you want us to hire experts on indig identity!
Those arguing indig'n is a threat to open inquiry actually mean the prob is they can't say what they think without anyone disagreeing.
It's tragic that anyone buys that they give two hoots about free and open inquiry.
Fin.
Fin.
