Congratulations to Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@IBJIYONGI) on the publication of her FQXi-funded research, in the journal "Signs": journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.10…
@IBJIYONGI CPW was funded through our “Physics of the Observer” program. She investigates “who is allowed to be an observer in physics, & who is fundamentally denied the possibility” -- introducing the concept of “white empiricism,” & its negative impact on black women scientists & physics.
@IBJIYONGI Some thought-provoking highlights from the paper: “Essentially, white empiricism involves a predominantly white, predominantly male professional community selectively failing to apply the scientific method to themselves...
@IBJIYONGI "… while using “scientific” evaluation to strengthen the barriers to Black women’s entry into physics. White empiricism is therefore a form of antiempiricism masquerading as an empirical approach to the natural world.”
@IBJIYONGI CPW: James Martin asks “why particle physics and astrophysics are considered to be more prestigious than condensed matter and materials science”...
@IBJIYONGI ... this view is reinforced in science journalism, which treats advances in particle physics as major intellectual achievements, while advances in condensed matter are regarded as mere material, technological achievements...
@IBJIYONGI CPW (cont): “...minoritized individuals are discouraged from pursuing lines of work that are considered especially intellectually challenging (Hernandez 2010). Their absence ...is then proffered as evidence of their lack of adequate preparation or competency.”
@IBJIYONGI The paper is open access and you can also read more about her ideas in her Q&A with reporter Nicola Jones on our site. That interview was the most-read article on our site in 2018: fqxi.org/community/arti….
@IBJIYONGI I should say that notifications on this Twitter account erupted over the weekend, as many people were evidently shocked by the paper.
@IBJIYONGI FQXi’s mission is to catalyze, support, and disseminate research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.
@IBJIYONGI One of FQXi's goals is to enable research that, because of its speculative, non-mainstream, or high-risk nature, would otherwise go unperformed due to lack of funding.
@IBJIYONGI When we received Prof Prescod-Weinstein’s initial proposal we were excited because we felt that her project had the potential to be groundbreaking. We are pleased to see her work come together in such a meticulously researched and powerfully argued piece.
@IBJIYONGI Due to FQXi’s mission, much of the research that we fund is provocative and unconventional. We appreciate that not everyone will agree with the content of every project that we fund and all academic projects and papers are open to constructive criticism.
@IBJIYONGI We are happy to see so many people engaging with this project on social media and opening up debate. But it is disappointing to see personal attacks on Prof Prescod-Weinstein and tweets questioning her qualifications as a physicist.
@IBJIYONGI (Her qualifications as a physicist are impeccable, by the way, but that’s not the point — everyone should be treated with respect.)
@IBJIYONGI A tip: Referring to Prof Prescod-Weinstein as “Mrs”...
@IBJIYONGI ...and/or suggesting that the educational institutions where she has trained and worked (including Harvard, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, MIT…) are corrupt or failing because they allowed her to attain expertise in both science and social science...
@IBJIYONGI ...will not damage her credibility. But you may succeed in damaging your own. You may also ironically be supporting her arguments, as she describes most eloquently in this thread:
@IBJIYONGI Anyway, whether you agree with CPW’s claims or not, I would certainly recommend reading her paper: journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.10…
