Academics everywhere should be aware of this recent hoax, modeled on the ‘90s Sokal Hoax, which is providing fodder for the culture wars & branding all scholars as biased radicals willling to stop at nothing to forward their agenda. google.com/amp/s/www.thea…
One example cited in the bogus articles: Teaching students about “white privilege” and the need for redress by advocating that educators bind outspoken white students to the floor in chains in front of the entire class as a means of “experiential reparations.”
Another offensive example from a bogus paper, designed to expose the alleged absurdity of queer studies, gender studies, etc. focused on “in situ observation of canine rape culture in a Portland dog park.” It asks: “Do dogs suffer oppression based upon (perceived) gender?”
Yet another example is disturbing from an indigenous studies perspective. The bogus article dismisses “western astronomy” as “sexist and racist” & posits an alternative for physics departments: teach “feminist astrology” & “ethnography” as “alternative knowledge” methodologies.
My concerns are threefold: 1. The bogus papers focus on topics the right already views w/ distrust & fear (gender, race, identity, white privilege, sexuality) & their acceptance in academic journals offers “proof” of a radical left wing agenda in universities everywhere.
2. The issues mocked in the hoax articles, and now derided in the media, are serious. Rape culture? Racial privilege? Eurocentrism? Gender and power? These are not laughing matters—But the journal hoax has reduced these crucial issues into punchlines & weapons for the right.
3. The humanities are and have been under attack for years now. Academics are constantly being asked to justify our existence, prove our monetary worth, & produce metrics to show why we—and the subjects we study—matter. This hoax has made our job much harder.
Final note: To non-academics there isn’t much difference b/n The American Sociological Review & QXTC Radical Studies (just made that up). The rigor and lengthiness of the peer-review process is lost in all of this. Even articles that took years to research/write are suspect.
We can’t assume this will sort itself out, that the difference b/n bogus and real scholarship is obvious. It’s not. We have to be on the offensive. We have to demonstrate why our work matters, and why gender, sexuality, & racial privilege are crucial issues worthy of analysis.
Saturday morning thread on the recent academic journals hoax. I had to get this off of my chest...
