Academic Politics Research Articles

The Future Perfect of Suspicion and Prediction as a Dispositive of Security Today? The Legacy of Foucault (1977)

This article discusses the current legacy of Michel Foucault in relation to the current political situation. It is articulated in three parts. The first insists on the fact that Michel Foucault has been and still is significant for discussions concerning political sciences and international relations by the way he has discussed them and by his own academic politics. The second part highlights the key role of his attempt to define a dispositif of security in the 1977-78 lecture course ‘Security, Territory, Population’ and the various interpretations given after his death. The third part introduces my own research on the subject and its development. Twenty years ago, I called this dispositif of security surveillance a ban-opticon dispositif. This is only partly relevant since the violence of the effects on individuals has been intensified by a multifocal construction of "suspects" by various transnational guilds of security professionals who systematise profiling and weak correlations as an alternative method of seeking the truth about causalities and facts attributed to an individual. Because of this systematicity of "suspicion first", which jeopardises the principle of innocence, I call this dispositif of security a transnational dispositif of suspicion-prediction, which is organised both as a rearticulation of the modern episteme with suspicion back at its core and as a "legitimate" one, thus allowing a "preventive" violence to be re-enacted in the name of scientific predictions of a future so deadly that it is necessary to act violently now in order to prevent even more violence. This question of inverted temporality, in which the imagined future dominates the present, leads to the belief that the future can already be known under a grammar of the future perfect. Combined with the strategic orientation of right-wing parties to abandon the celebration of the past in order to mobilise the fear of apocalyptic futures, this characteristic of the ‘future-perfect’ explains a series of contemporary developments in security and surveillance, reframing the attachment of the population to a new form of conservatism that captures the imagination of the future, including some contemporary discourses of war. Resisting this attraction to the future-perfect is possible by reinventing hope.

Good reasons, real questions and proper aims: Hasok Chang on the rationality of the chemical revolution

ABSTRACT In this article, we provide a detailed discussion of Hasok Chang’s analysis of the Chemical Revolution. Our focus lies on his use of the framework of systems of practice and his claim that the abandonment of the phlogiston theory was irrational. We argue that his framework runs into problems when applied to the chemical revolution because of its static view on the aims of the historical actors and we suggest using Nicholas Jardine’s concept of the reality of questions instead as a more flexible historiographical tool. We show how Chang’s claim regarding the irrational aspects of the chemical revolution follows from his strictly individualistic epistemology, leading him to see institutional and social aspects that impact the determination of aims as external to scientific rationality. We argue that a viable pragmatist and pluralist philosophy of science needs to embrace ‘academic politics’ as an explicit part of its view of rationality.

Ehren und Erinnern (re‐)konstruieren – ein Kommentar.

AbstractThe commentary interprets the practices of remembering and the creation of memory as an attempt at academic and public‐media self‐understanding, which exhibit past‐political, present‐oriented and future‐oriented perspectives and intentions. Academic politics of history and remembrance can hardly be imagined without reference to and interaction with the public and politics. The contributions in this special issue make it clear that a large number of public and private actors and interest groups are usually involved in memory policy controversies surrounding academics. When discussing prizes, street names or school names named after academics, for example, very different logics and ideas about remembering and memory often clash. This fundamental dilemma is particularly evident in debates about controversial academics who worked before, during and after the Nazi era.

Addressing structural mentoring barriers in postdoctoral training: a qualitative study

Purpose Structural mentoring barriers are policies, practices and cultural norms that collectively disadvantage marginalized groups and perpetuate disparities in mentoring. This study aims to better understand structural mentoring barriers at the postdoctoral training stage, which has a direct impact on faculty diversity and national efforts to retain underrepresented groups in research careers. Design/methodology/approach A diverse sample of postdoctoral scholars (“postdocs”) from across the USA were asked to participate in focus groups to discuss their training experiences. The authors conducted five 90-min focus groups with 32 biomedical postdocs, including 20 (63%) women and 15 (47%) individuals from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups (URG). Findings A social-ecological framework was used to categorize both the upstream and downstream manifestations of structural mentoring barriers, as well as mentoring barriers, overall. Notable structural barriers included: academic politics and scientific hierarchy; inequalities resulting from mentor prestige; the (over) reliance on one mentor; the lack of formal training for academic and non-academic careers; and the lack of institutional diversity and institutional mentor training. To overcome these barriers, postdocs strongly encouraged developing a network or team of mentors and recommended institutional interventions that create more comprehensive professional development, mentorship and belonging. Originality/value For postdoctoral scientists, structural mentoring barriers can permeate down to institutional, interpersonal and individual levels, impeding a successful transition to an independent research career. This work provides strong evidence for promoting mentorship networks and cultivating a “mentoring milieu” that fosters a supportive community and a strong culture of mentorship at all levels.

On the history of neuroscience research in the Max Planck Society, 1948–2002—German, European, and transatlantic perspectives: Introduction

ABSTRACT To further our understanding of the transformations of the modern, globalized world, historical research concerning the twentieth century must acknowledge the tremendous impact that science and technology exerted and continue to exert on political, economic, military, and social developments. To better comprehend a global history of science, it is also crucial to include Germany’s most prominent research organization: The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG). Despite the existence of numerous institute chronicles and selected anniversary editions, the overall development of the MPG—historically situated in more than 80 institutes with more than 250 research service departments (of which approximately 50 have reached into the wider field of neuroscience, behavioral science, and cognitive science)—it remains largely terra incognita from a scholarly perspective. From June 2014 to December 2022, the Research Program on the History of the Max Planck Society (GMPG) opened previously neglected vistas on contemporary history, academic politics, and economic developments of the Federal Republic of Germany and its international relations by raising questions such as these: Who were the key scientific actors? In what networks did they work? In what fields had the MPG paved the way for cutting-edge innovations? What were its successes and where did it fail? In what ways were its institutional structures connected to its scientific achievements and its historical legacies? What is specific about the MPG in comparison to other national institutions in and outside of Germany? These questions relate to the emerging interdisciplinary field of the neurosciences. They refer in part to the MPG’s founding years—from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s—which faced significant challenges for a “normalization process” in biomedical research and the burgeoning field of neuroscience. This special issue of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences is composed of an introduction, five articles, and two neuroscience history interviews. It reflects on the multifold dimensions of behavioral psychology, brain research, and cognitive science developments at the MPG since its beginning through the reopening of several former Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes. After World War II, the extra-university research society—named in honor of physicist Max Planck (1858–1947)—was eventually established in the British Occupation Zone in 1946, in the American Zone in 1948, and in 1949 in the French Zone, unifying the MPG as the successor umbrella organization of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes (KWIs), now transformed into Max Planck Institutes. Chronologically, the research period covered in this special issue ranges from 1948 to 2002.

Colonial Scholars and Anti‐Colonial Agents: Politics of Academic Knowledge Production Between the West Indies and London in the Mid‐20thCentury

AbstractThis paper analyses the socio‐spatial entanglement of West Indian anti‐colonial knowledge production in the mid‐20thcentury existingbetweenLondon and the Caribbean. This is interpreted as a case of the paradoxical politics of academic knowledge production in that British imperial policies that were constraining knowledge production in the West Indies were also seen as facilitating anti‐colonial awareness and work in London by West Indian actors. Research demonstrating the importance of the metropole as a meeting place for global anti‐colonial actors is complemented by shifting the focus to the entangled spacebetweenLondon and the West Indies. This article comparatively analyses the academic politics of the British Colonial Office – a spatial dislocation of knowledge production away from the West Indies – and its perception and challenge by Caribbean intellectuals who were temporarily based in London. The analysis builds on contributions by C.L.R. James and S. Wynter and their reflections on the institutionalisation of research in the West Indies and their experiences in London. Overall, I emphasise a relational and symmetrising analysis of knowledge production in imperial contexts that accounts for the entanglement of imperial politics in the metropole and the colonies, and the perception and potential use of these political entanglements by actors in and from colonial contexts.

Review: Richard Krautheimer in Deutschland: Aus den Anfängen einer wissenschaftlichen Karriere 1925–1933

Review: <i>Richard Krautheimer in Deutschland: Aus den Anfängen einer wissenschaftlichen Karriere 1925–1933</i>

Science under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America

Science under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America

John Huxtable Elliott (1930–2022)

John Huxtable Elliott (1930–2022)

Heinrich Laube’s European Moment

ABSTRACT Despite his apparent prominence as one of the five ‘Young German’ writers whose work was banned by the Bundestagsbeschluß of December 1835, Heinrich Laube is an author whose Vormärz publications are underresearched and inadequately contextualized. This essay seeks to reconstruct a European moment in the work of Laube, beginning with his 1832 book on the Polish November Uprising, and ending with the publication of extracts from the novel trilogy Das junge Europa in August Lewald’s literary journal Europa in 1837. The essay argues that Laube’s European moment has been effaced by state censorship and self-censorship, and by the academic politics that have denied Laube scholarship an adequate historical-critical edition of his works.

Afro-Belgian activist resistances to research procedures: Reflections on epistemic extractivism and decolonial interventions in sociological research

This article examines Afro-Belgian resistance to sociological research procedures and in particular, the way in which demands for compensation and citation policies have recently emerged as a sine qua non activist condition for participation in academic devices. Grounded on a long-term ethnography conducted within Afro-Belgian anti-racist circles (2011–2019), the article argues that activist resistances, whether or not they give rise to political claims, have something to do with the colonial engagement of sociology and more generally of science. Building on postcolonial/black/feminist studies and decolonial indigenous research, the article explores to what extent, academic politics of citation and compensation of anti-racist activists could then be considered as decolonial interventions. Against the background of research involving groups whose activism is intrinsically linked to a political and epistemic domination, the paradigm of ‘protection’ of the ‘researched’ (through procedures of anonymization) is not only insufficient but problematic. Decolonial intervention should not only be addressed under the lens of knowledge co-production (participative/decolonial/anti-racist research) but also in terms of co-ownership policies of data/knowledges.

Seeking Tenure While Black: Lawsuit Composite Counterstories of Black Professors at Historically White Institutions

ABSTRACT In tenure and promotion denial lawsuits against historically White institutions, Black professors submit evidence of discrimination based on implicit and explicit bias and gendered racism, yet legal redress rarely occurs because many courts will not recognize structural inequities as a persisting reality in academia. Informed by intersectional theory and methodology, this qualitative study synthesized data from legal documents of four tenure denial lawsuits filed by Black professors, with the results presented as a fictionalized composite counternarrative affirming these professors’ lived experiences. Drawing on scholarship about tenure and promotion, the study identifies intersectional barriers to tenure attainment for Black professors that include inadequate institutional support, divergence from established institutional tenure and promotion policies, inconsistent application of tenure and promotion guidelines, and problematic academic politics. The study findings illuminate how inequitable, often haphazard tenure and promotion processes can result in litigation and extend scholarship about the retention of Black professors in the academy. The project delineates a path toward more humanity-affirming academic work environments with unequivocal institutional commitments to faculty retention. To translate these values into practice, the authors assert the need for a new approach to tenure and promotion policy anchored in anti-discrimination, referred to as critical procedural justice.

Paradigm-breaking pandemics, old academic politics

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Walter Bruno Gratzer (1932–2021): In his own words, as far as possible

Miranda Robertson commemorates the life, remarkable times and witty and erudite writing of protein chemist and biophysicist Walter Gratzer.

Imperial entanglements of modern social work education in India

ABSTRACT This article concerns itself with the events surrounding the ‘Americanisation’ of social work education in India and aims to evaluate if this was an outcome of entanglements with imperialism—cultural, professional or moral. It looks at actors, within and beyond academic spaces, including missionaries and cold war politics as key contours in organizing the ‘American’ turn in social work education in India. Subsequent to the import of the ‘modern social work’ discipline to India, the episteme of social work was inferred to be more clinicalized and neo-liberal in its approach to social development. The article is a humble effort to understand if this ‘technology transfer’ of social work education, its models and methods, was a plain and simple emancipatory event or was also organized by the imperial interests?

Intersectionality and social movements: Intersectional challenges and imperatives in the study of social movements

AbstractIntersectionality emerged in the border space between social movements and academic politics as a means of better understanding and confronting interlocking systems of oppression. For scholars studying social movements, it offers a framework for better understanding the power dynamics of movements (the inclusions and exclusions). It is also something to be studied. Women of color, and other groups at the intersection of multiple marginalities conceptualized intersectionality as not only a type of integrated analysis or heuristic, but as an active political orientation to be put into practice. In this essay, I review and discuss the benefits and challenges of studying social movements intersectionally (an analysis that might be applied to the study of any movements), as well as the growing literature focused on social movement intersectionality, that looks for and at intersectionally oriented movements and the praxis of intersectionality within movements. This developing area of study provides new ways of understanding and troubling social movement solidarity.

Postdocs' advice on pursuing a research career in academia: A qualitative analysis of free-text survey responses.

The decision of whether to pursue a tenure-track faculty position has become increasingly difficult for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral trainees considering a career in research. Trainees express concerns over job availability, financial insecurity, and other perceived challenges associated with pursuing an academic position. To help further elucidate the benefits, challenges, and strategies for pursuing an academic career, a diverse sample of postdoctoral scholars ("postdocs") from across the United States were asked to provide advice on pursuing a research career in academia in response to an open-ended survey question. 994 responses were qualitatively analyzed using both content and thematic analyses. 177 unique codes, 20 categories, and 10 subthemes emerged from the data and were generalized into two thematic areas: Life in Academia and Strategies for Success. On life in academia, postdoc respondents overwhelmingly agree that academia is most rewarding when you are truly passionate about scientific research and discovery. 'Passion' emerged as the most frequently cited code, referenced 189 times. Financial insecurity, work-life balance, securing grant funding, academic politics, and a competitive job market emerged as challenges of academic research. The survey respondents note that while passion and hard work are necessary, they are not always sufficient to overcome these challenges. The postdocs encourage trainees to be realistic about career expectations and to prepare broadly for career paths that align with their interests, skills, and values. Strategies recommended for perseverance include periodic self-reflection, mental health support, and carefully selecting mentors. For early-career scientists along the training continuum, this advice deserves critical reflection before committing to an academic research career. For advisors and institutions, this work provides a unique perspective from postdoctoral scholars on elements of the academic training path that can be improved to increase retention, career satisfaction, and preparation for the scientific workforce.

Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me—A Memoir by Deirdre Bair

Reviewed by: Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me—A Memoir by Deirdre Bair Alice J. Strange Bair, Deirdre. Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me—A Memoir. Doubleday, 2019. ISBN 978-0-385-54245-6. Pp. 347. Bair recalls two decades of her life, which were intertwined with the lives of Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir, whose biographies she researched and wrote in the 1970s and 1980s. Beckett and Beauvoir lived in the Montparnasse area of Paris, where Bair met with them numerous times, first Beckett, in cafés, and then Beauvoir, in her small apartment. The work encompasses implicit lessons for biographers while portraying the personalities of her subjects and her own work habits. The account begins in 1971, when Bair was completing a dissertation on Beckett. Failing to secure an academic job, she daringly wrote to Beckett to propose her first biography. To her surprise, he casually agreed to the project and she was off on her first trip to Paris. When she met him, she realized that he was doubtful about her abilities, although he promised to neither help nor hinder her work. Seven years later, Beckett's biography was complete. During this time, Bair was juggling family duties and patching together financial support through grants and part-time teaching. Beckett was not available for in-depth interviews, but he directed her to friends and relatives for information. Bair visited Beckett's residences in Dublin and London and spoke to anyone who had known him at any stage of his life. In interviews, informants sometimes tried to sway her opinion of Beckett to agree with theirs or exaggerated their importance in his life. Bair did not consider any detail as factual without corroboration by two credible sources. Following complications with agents and publishers, another lesson for biographers, the work was published in 1978. It was generally well-received but criticized by some old-guard Beckett scholars, mostly male, who questioned her status as his biographer. Nonetheless, Bair continued her career and her frequent trips to Paris. She approached her next subject, Simone de Beauvoir, with the same trepidation. Beauvoir not only accepted Bair as a biographer but invited her into her small apartment for dozens of interviews, concluding each afternoon session with a relaxing drink. Unlike the formal and reserved Beckett, who frequently failed to appear for their appointments, Beauvoir welcomed Bair's company and talked freely about herself. Again, Bair met with the family and friends of her subject, and, unlike with Beckett, occasionally joined Beauvoir on social occasions. Her meeting with Beauvoir's sister is memorable, and her detailed description of Beauvoir's life during her final years is the work's most compelling aspect. When Beauvoir died unexpectedly in 1986, before the biography was completed, Bair felt a deep personal loss. She was among the prominent group of mourners who led the cortège from the hospital to the Montparnasse cemetery. Her biography of Beauvoir appeared in 1990, after ten years of effort. The work at hand is an account of the struggles and rewards of a biographer, [End Page 246] along with glimpses into academic politics. This evocative and appealing work will be welcomed by a broad general audience and is essential for anyone interested in Beckett or Beauvoir. Alice J. Strange Southeast Missouri State University, emerita Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French

A Student’s Plea to Professor North: An Episode in Academic Politics and Interdisciplinarity in the Reagan Years

A Student’s Plea to Professor North: An Episode in Academic Politics and Interdisciplinarity in the Reagan Years

Scandals and Battle Wounds: Remembering “The Forgotten War” in Indignation

In Roth’s 2008 novel Indignation, two types of scandals are discernable: overtly presented sex acts in public spaces and subtly presented political scandals Marcus encounters first at his college and then while at war. The academic politics that Marcus experiences at Winesburg College, and the social oppression he battles as a result, illuminate the hypocrisy of the political rationale of the Korean War fought to quell the spread of Communism abroad, while quasi-fascist policies under McCarthyism were enacted within the country. The “sex scandals” emphasize that Marcus’s sexual dalliances are minor transgressions for which he is disproportionally punished with an expulsion that leads to his military draft. This punishment reveals the subtler but more significant scandal of the novel: Marcus’s purposeless death as a result of corrupt politics in the academic and political arenas. In his dying hours, Marcus cognitively pleas for a listener of his story who will understand the ultimate scandal of his life: his tragic death. This plea, when read through the lens of trauma theory, represents a call for more critical attention to the Korean War, as Indignation ultimately calls into question the morality of this “forgotten war.”