2 There has also been renewed attention to the familiar double bind faced by people protesting police violence against Blacks. A great deal of recent political coverage has considered the various double binds facing female politicians. Double binds are ubiquitous and not just within academic philosophy.
If you do the latter, you might not find a platform that reaches its intended audience, and your research will, again, not effectively expand or challenge the traditional canon. However, your research may not effectively expand or challenge the canon, and it will reinforce the validity of the standards of the academic status quo that have thus far marginalized Africana thought. If you do the former, you can garner recognition and an effective platform for your research. You are faced with a choice between doing the sort of work that fits within the academic status quo and doing the sort of work that challenges that status quo. However, the status quo in academic philosophy is to treat the topics and methods of Africana philosophy as marginal. 1 You are a Black graduate student who works on Africana thought with a view to expanding the traditional philosophical canon.
But by doing this service work, you compromise your own research and reinforce a system where disproportionate burdens are placed on women and people of color, making them less likely to succeed in the profession.Ĭonsider another scenario. Moreover, if you refuse to do this work, you indirectly help to maintain a status quo in which women and people of color like yourself remain dramatically underrepresented and underserved. If you do this sort of mentorship work, you help diversify the field in a way that will be better for you and other members of underrepresented groups.
While you believe this service work is valuable with a view to increasing the representation of minorities in philosophy, it is also emotionally draining and takes significant time away from your own research. You are frequently approached by students, typically women or members of other underrepresented groups, looking for mentorship and emotional support as they navigate their academic experience. Imagine you are an untenured professor and the only woman and person of color among the faculty in a philosophy department.
0 kommentar(er)
