Contradicting Contradictions:
Interrogating Humanities-based Scholar Activism in the
Neoliberal University
Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Student Conference
University of California, Merced
April 4 - 6, 2019
Keynote Speaker
Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Presented by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Group
and University of California, Merced Graduate Division
Humanities scholars find utility in anthropology, archaeology, art, history, literature, philosophy, and other disciplines in order to understand human society and culture. In recent years, the humanities has made an effort toward addressing social justice issues through the use of a critical lens. Sometimes, despite this effort, humanities scholars reproduce the same issues they claim to understand. This outcome can be especially common in the realm of activist scholarship. Activist scholarship aims to understand the dynamics of select social issues, and produce knowledge that may help in alleviating social ailments. But what happens when academic knowledge overshadows community knowledge, in effect undermining lived experiences?
In an institution that incentivizes the production of knowledge as a means to soliciting new financial resources, humanist scholars often work within an environment wrought with contradiction. After all, much of the humanities seek to address social issues, but what is a scholar activist to do if their chosen type of work isn’t encouraged (and may even be discouraged) by their institution? This year’s conference theme, “Contradicting Contradictions: Interrogating Humanities-based Scholar Activism in the Neoliberal University,” seeks to address the contradictions of a university that incentivizes job security and tenureship in exchange for a certain type of knowledge production that benefits the neoliberal university. This type of privileging requires academics to work within a system that generally values profit, and leaves little room to work alongside local communities who may be less likely to bring financial resources to the university. In this type of environment, how do academics find balance between job security and reforming the neoliberal university to benefit everyone, not just those who bring financial benefits to the institution?
Charles R. Hale’s edited volume, Engaging Contradictions: Theory, Politics, and Methods of Activist Scholarship, reminds us to ask ourselves, “research for whom?” when working within the neoliberal hierarchy of knowledge. Working as a grounding principle, the “research for whom?” lens creates room for acknowledging the privileges of conducting research in the University. By failing to interrogate the motivations behind humanist scholarship, we fall into the cycle of reproducing work for the sake of career advancement, or what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “luxury production,” and risk reproducing the very social obstacles we claim to address. This year’s conference seeks to redefine “knowledge,” and what that means for local communities, as well as to interrogate the role of humanist scholars in activist scholarship: How can humanist scholars work beyond the confines of institutional incentives to reimagine a type of scholarship that finds value in community knowledge outside of the academic hierarchy?
Keynote Speaker
Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Policy Director + Senior Research Associate, Center for World Indigenous Studies
Lecturer of American Indian Studies, California State University, San Marco
Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is a lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos, and a consultant and educator in environmental justice policy planning. Dina’s research interests focuses on Indigenous nationalism, self-determination, environmental justice, and education. She also works within the field of critical sports studies, examining the intersections of indigeneity and the sport of surfing. Dina is co-author with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz of Beacon Press’s “All the Real Indians Died Off” and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans, and author of As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock.
Spring 2019's Program