by Heather Blakey
This question comes up a lot when we’re talking about the impact of academic work, so we thought it would be an interesting one to talk about here.
There is a definite fear that activism means we are ‘biased’ in some way, that we won’t be doing ‘independent’ or ‘objective’ research.
I think though that everyone does research for a reason, and it’s totally compatible to be motivated to do research for reasons of social justice or wanting to change something. In fact, it’s just being honest about our motivations and intentions – everyone has them!
This is not to say that research is compromised by that – it’s still possible to be an ethical and honest researcher, but be driven by the hope of change.It is a activist statement to return our findings to the people that we’ve worked with, and in a form that’s practically useful, just as it is to research with people collaboratively, rather than doing research ‘about people’. I’m sure there are many ways of being an activist-academic – but I definitely think that it is compatible with being a good academic, that being an activist OR a good academic is not a choice we have to make.
I think activism in research can be present when we choose what research to do and how, when we choose who to work with and how, when we choose how to disseminate our research and who to, and whether we move on or remain committed to the people and places affected by the work we’ve done: in fact all the places where our motivations and values as a researcher inevitably show up, whether we acknowledge them or not.
Also, I think that being an activist-academic is about seeing academic work as a collective project – one contribution to the struggle for social justice – rather than a competitive, individual effort.
That’s one reason I think the Peace Studies Department is important. Obviously, activist academic work happens in lots of places – but there is something unusual and important in a whole department set up with what I would call activist aims. In Adam Curle’s inaugural lecture, he described the motive for establishing Peace Studies as an intellectual and practical field as helping to create a world “in which we are not separated from each other by fear, suspicion, prejudice, or hatred; in which wse are free and equal, considerate and loving with each other”.
I think this is what Peace Studies should be about – applied research to make a difference to the world. When I think of it like that, I wonder how Peace Research can be anything but activist?
What do you think…?
Heather (current Peace Studies PhD student)
Hi, as an aspiring academic and researcher in Linguistics, I hope I’m qualified to give an opinion here
One substantial voice arguing for such an agenda to research is that of Giroux (2003, 2006:170-171), who in a recent paper declares that:
“Intellectuals have a responsibility not only to make truth prevail in the world and fight injustice wherever it appears, but also to organise their collective passions to prevent human suffering, genocide and diverse forms of unfreedom linked to domination and exploitation [. . .] Such a stance not only connects intellectual work to making dominant power accountable, it also makes concrete the possibility for transforming hope and politics into an ethical space and public act that confronts the flow of everyday experience and the weight of social suffering with the force
of individual and collective resistance and the unending project of democratic social transformation.”
As a teacher, I am also reminded of Thurlow’s concept of ‘teaching to transgress’ (Thurlow, 2004; Tomic & Thurlow, 2002: 83), and Neil Postman’s book “Teaching as a subversive activity”
Regards,
Ibrar Butt
Giroux, H. (2006) Is there a role for critical pedagogy in language/culture studies? An
interview with Henry Giroux by Manuela Guilherme. Language and Intercultural
Communication 6 (2), 163175
Thurlow, C. (2004) Relating to our work, accounting for our selves: The autobiographical imperative in teaching about difference. Language and Intercultural Communication
4 (4), 209228.
Tomic, A. and Thurlow, C. (2002) Editorial. Language and Intercultural Communication 2 (2), 8185.
I received a graduate degree in Visual Anthropology some years ago, and have spent several decades as an itinerant peace activist, using documentary film for enhancing peaceful relationships among people of different cultures. I have worked with museums (including the American Smithsonian Institution) and universities and film festivals (in the US and more recently in Asia) and a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) station in Chicago. I am currently both leading a nonprofit organization and working as a documentary film expert for a US Government funded program to take American documentaries on a vast range of topics to live audiences around the world. I have cobbled together a patchwork ‘career’ of this, and have taken risks and had amazing adventures, although I don’t have much in the bank to show for it. I must say that this has not been an easy path, but I have clung to it stubbornly.
I confess to tremendous frustration with the hesitancy among academics to apply what they learn. Yes, I’m oversimplifying, but have you noticed that the typical academic response to a problem, any problem, is to propose further study? Where is the support, where is the funding, for applying some of the most basic principles of peaceful living? I will propose the possibility that it is much, much safer for academics to stay academic (as in the saying, “it is academic,” meaning, it has no practical relevance). I can’t blame them: academics have families to support and jobs to protect; academics may prefer stability to the life that being “out there” as an activist can create. It is also much safer for funders to support research and study than to back activities that might be controversial. But what is the purpose of all the study and research, if not to do something useful with the learnings and findings?? If it is only to perpetuate jobs and academic programs, I would judge it as falling short.
Peace Studies, along with Environmental Studies, are two areas that hold the potential to help humankind salvage our species and our planet. We on Planet Earth desperately need the benefit of applying what you are teaching and learning. Every individual student and professor has decisions to make about how – or whether – they will contribute to that mission. Those who find the courage to take action will find it an unconventional, challenging, and immensely rewarding path.
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