Re: academic freedom

Kathryn_Alexander who-is-at sfu.ca
Wed, 4 Aug 1999 15:59:28 -0800

My stomach has been in knots since the Daly discourse erupted - trying to
compose a suitable response. thank you Mary, Jennifer, Phil, Nate, and all
the rest for articulating the wide range of responses and arguments.

I find it apalling that Mary Daly has been "de-tenured", I find it
frightening that there should be arguments supporting this action, and
wondered if the Canadian/US cultural institutional definitions of tenure
and academic freedom could be so radically different from one another.

I am "learning lots' about the function of the XCMA mail-list -how certain
topics become privleged, how others shift the centre towards unwanted
knowledge get contained, re-scripted, drained of their original import.

It is important to note how the discourse strands get set in certain
trajectories, as the active text/genre takes on alife of its own, I see
how the very quick initial uptake from Paul has revealed a particular power
of ownership over the discursive terraine, such that every subsequent
response MUST now negotiate that original response. Our speech genres are
polyphonous, but text and new technologies sometimes support mono-logic
uptake. I know in a few days this strand will be archived, this
conversation will be over-taken,perhaps by more "double-stimulation" talk,
but the gender/power/knowledge rupture will continue to reverberate for
this reader.

This is a peculair eclipsing, that Mary Daly and Dorothy Smith ( another
CRONE of an unwanted scholar ) must recognize, that many of us recognize.
How is it that the lifetime work of a radical modernist, essenetialised
feminist theology and theorizing is now rendered illegal, un-tenureable,
un-wanted. The facts are multiple, shifting and can be reconstructed to
fit any reality. The multiple readings of this event under-score the
"conceptual relations of ruling" that underscore our textually mediated
society, the social text is breathing fire.

This is an important dialogue, it is profoundly about the politics of
academic freedom, scholarship, the annihilating capacities of binary
argumentation, and the huge lacuna of power at the heart of our utterances.

It is way beyond double think,

kathryn

>Mary, Paul, Folks -
>
> I think about the historical context of Western Civilization in a
>general sense, and then consider, as well, our own American history and
>culture. Groups that have been oppressed, folks who have been marginalized
>- Blacks, women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, working class folks, folks
>whose first language is "other" than English and others - continue to
>struggle for their voices in a social context that has institutionalized
>the -isms. From general bureaucratic structure, to the structure of
>schooling, from the language we use, to the way we think about folks who
>are the same and folks who are different from ourselves racism, sexism,
>classism, and other -isms saturate the social context.
>
> I want to say gently and respectfully from one human being to
>others that it is folly to think that the act of a member of the group of
>"oppressors" joining a group of the "oppressed" has the same meaning as its
>inverse. For a male to seek entry into a site for females is not the same
>act as a female seeking entry into a site for males given our history, our
>socially constructed gender roles, and our association of power with the
>male standard / norm and our construction of "female" as "other" than that.
>
> While I wish that we could all work and live together I recognize
>that folks who are different from me - who don't share my privileges of
>being white and middle class for example - may need a space for gathering
>and learning to speak that excludes me. I remind myself and others that
>this space is granted and respected in the hopes that in the future we will
>all be able to sit at the same table and both speak to and hear each other.
>
> This conversation is messy and so important. Perhaps, messy
>defines important, yes?
>
>Jennifer
>
>_______________________________________________
>
>Jennifer A. Vadeboncoeur, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Instruction
>Montana State University
>120 Reid Hall, Department of Education
>Bozeman, MT 59717
>Office: (406) 994-6457
>Fax: (406) 994-3261

"science does not vanquish mystery" Annie Dillard "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"

*****************************
Kathryn Alexander, email ...... kalexand who-is-at sfu.ca
Doctoral Candidate, FAX .........(604) 291 - 3203
Faculty of Education, SFU(message).....(604) 291- 3395
Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6