tide turning on academic twitter?

[dayoftheclownfish]

Remember those people with PhDs? Who were supposed to be clever? Who were really venomous about anybody who had slight doubts about TWAW over the last two years? Telling the world that anybody who did not completely acquiesce would be on the wrong side of history. Calling for fellow academics to be blacklisted, disinvited, sacked. Accusing them of transphobia. You know who I mean ...*

They are tweeting an awful less about this at the moment, pretending to be dignified scholars concerned with more important issues. They might risk a retweet, possibly of some obscure person in America. I think this could be a sign that the tide in academia is turning because anybody with half a brain can recognise the dynamics of what is happening with JK Rowling.

I am saddened by the public display of misogyny and I feel for Rowling but I am also hopeful that this might be our 'have you no decency?' moment. Am I being too optimistic in thinking that change might be afoot in academia?

• I generally don't like ad hominems but Priyamvada Gopal is a good example of a very 'woke' and outspoken twitter academic. Also the daughter of a diplomat.

It looks like everyone who has blindly supported "TWAW" mentality, are having to have a good think about exactly what they've been supporting, that's for sure.

I hope you're right, and it's not just that they've lost interest in the subject, or are busy with family during lockdown or .... or ....etc

Things seem very focussed (legitimately) on BLM and decolonizing the curriculum at the moment.

But this focus is also a convenient way to pretend that other questions aren't being asked.

There is institutional capture by trans ideology but also dissent and an awareness that dissent can be costly.

Maybe some of them have realised that the universities may be facing tough times, and a track record of that sort may not stand them in good stead when decisions are being made on which departments to trim.

I just checked in this morning and my observation is that some academics who were fully on the TRA bandwagon this time last year have not said a peep, even after the bombshell revelation that Self-ID is dead (for now). Whether that means that in academia it no longer seems to be the career-advancing cause it once was is a moot point but it’s a noticeable change. The true believers, of course, are still there (Alison Phipps, Matt Lodder, Jo Edge, Caroline can’trememberlastname at Sheffield ...) but the opportunists are having a rethink.

wildwomanwritingclub.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/what-it-costs-women_speak-out/

patch.com/new-jersey/newarknj/transgender-woman-will-lead-gender-studies-program-rutgers

It really doesn't feel like it to me I'm afraid.

Am I being too optimistic in thinking that change might be afoot in academia?

I think you probably are, I’m afraid. Academia will be the last place to see the turning of the tide. Too many out-of-touch elitists who are heavily invested in their woke identities and have based their entire career on them. They have too much to lose. It’s also a horribly competitive environment and it’s become all too obvious that many junior scholars are using the cover of SJW to try and discredit their rivals or more senior people in their field (who they’ll happily wish death upon so that they can have a shot at getting their jobs - yes, really, I’ve seen this on Twitter)

I thought the situation was pretty beak until a few months ago GC when I had a conversation with some colleagues about the various petitions that were doing the rounds. They were more receptive than I thought they would be ...

The fact that so many academics are scared to speak publically about this makes it hard to know for sure. I personally know tonnes more people who are in than out about this.

I think you probably are, I’m afraid. Academia will be the last place to see the turning of the tide. Too many out-of-touch elitists who are heavily invested in their woke identities and have based their entire career on them

Do you sense that the arts/the 'liberal' arts in universities may well go into decline in the not too distant future; as a result, partly, of funding issues of one sort or other?

My daughter had an interview with the vice chancellor of her university, just before lock-down. She's a mature student studying English Literature ( with a particular passion for Shakespeare & renaissance literature) and wanted to get an idea of how the university saw prospects for MA/PHD students in subjects such as hers.

Basically, she was told that these subjects ( arts generally) are in trouble as there is no funding for them.The money is in bio-sciences; digital; health and so on.

Furthermore, as you suggest, she, and her prof/tutor are thoroughly sick of the imposition of inter-sectionalist readings and interpretations onto all texts; rendering them utter bullshit and without any academic integrity. The study of literature, in many ways, has become a study of different interpretations of texts, rather than a study of the literature itself.

Difficult to say what the future of the arts and humanities will be but 'activism' can't be it because it actually prevents you from coming up with new perspectives if you're already ideologically committed. The entire higher education sector is in trouble at the moment. And yet, I also sense a subtle counter-movement - the value of free speech and free inquiry seemed like a given and maybe it is positive that it is being debated now.

Hard to argue with GCAcademic's analysis though.

From 2019.

www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/academic-freedom-scholarly-responsibility-and-the-new-gender-wars/

I recently had a conversation with a very senior academic at a prestigious university. He had gender-critical views but was afraid to speak out about them, which I thought was really shocking. My guess is that you get the very vocal Twitterati, tweeting their woke views and cancelling everyone who doesn't agree, and then you get everyone else, who isn't on Twitter and is keeping schtum out of a sense of self-preservation.

Universities are currently shedding large numbers of casual staff and offering voluntary severance to permanent staff, which is likely to become involuntary very soon.

I expect earning a living may have become a priority for many.

It's not academics, I know, but I noticed a change in Irish politics Twitter activity when Newsnight was covering the Tavistock the other night, compared to the Prime Time (Irish Newsnight equivalent btw) programme that was aired a year or two ago. When Prime Time covered it, Irish political parties and groups like the Irish Council for Civil Liberties were all tweeting about how asking questions about puberty blockers was transphobic. When Newsnight aired the other night I didn't see a peep out of them.

Anyone else notice this? I'm wondering if my impression was accurate.

I think JKR has had a huge effect. Everyone saw what happens when you say in the mildest terms what you think. And it’s what almost everyone thinks.

Although next to no one stood up for her only three foolish actors actively denounced her. All those who didn’t denounce her have been silent because they agree with her and are shocked to find their views are unsayable now. That’s woken up a lot of people. They are suddenly wondering if Stonewall et al are not quite the friends they thought they knew - the benign allies they used to rely on for sensible diversity action.

There also seems to be less ferocious moderating on here. The AIBU thread on Asda got hardly any deletions and got the story out there to thousands of readers.

@Justhadathought

I think you probably are, I’m afraid. Academia will be the last place to see the turning of the tide. Too many out-of-touch elitists who are heavily invested in their woke identities and have based their entire career on them

Do you sense that the arts/the 'liberal' arts in universities may well go into decline in the not too distant future; as a result, partly, of funding issues of one sort or other?

My daughter had an interview with the vice chancellor of her university, just before lock-down. She's a mature student studying English Literature ( with a particular passion for Shakespeare & renaissance literature) and wanted to get an idea of how the university saw prospects for MA/PHD students in subjects such as hers.

Basically, she was told that these subjects ( arts generally) are in trouble as there is no funding for them.The money is in bio-sciences; digital; health and so on.

Furthermore, as you suggest, she, and her prof/tutor are thoroughly sick of the imposition of inter-sectionalist readings and interpretations onto all texts; rendering them utter bullshit and without any academic integrity. The study of literature, in many ways, has become a study of different interpretations of texts, rather than a study of the literature itself.

I've been wondering this for a while, even before gender ideology was a big issue. The decline of the humanities is wider than that.

I saw an interesting thread on FB recently discussing an article on BLM and Critical Theory. A woman I lived next door to in university who had gone on to be academic was saying she had been shocked to see that CT had become a big deal outside of the academy - she had left 10 years ago to escape it. She had some interesting observations looking back at our time at a LAC where there was a divide between the post-modernists and classical philosophy - the latter she came to realise were more engaged across time than the former.

I think that academia may become irrelevant apart from technical science education, at least for the near-medium future. That won't change the drive to think though, the question is how will we create a new institution to facilitate that, and who will do it?

Goosefoot

I think that academia may become irrelevant apart from technical science education, at least for the near-medium future.

Well, here's where my possibly unfounded optimism comes in. If anything, this whole debacle has shown that it is necessary for society to pay a group of people to think and argue and disagree. If, for example, Kathleen Stock or Selina Todd did not have academic posts, they would not have the time to write books and articles. It's normal for paradigms and intellectual fashions to come and go. But you need a university sector which is more than technical education and which includes the arts and humanities to allow this to happen.

I agree with you, but do you think people will realise it in time? And are universities even able to provide that function any more?

We are just seeing a whole generation of young academics without tenure or even FT posts suddenly out of work. And the over-extended universities are going to be slashing like cray, or in some cases maybe not able to continue to pay for their infrastructure.

I sincerely hope academic managers will realise that they are shooting themselves in the foot by giving ammunition to those who say that universities are indoctrination factories where loony academics shut down dissent. There's a need to regain the public's trust. You can only win back trust if you're honest. Academic managers have been too focused on shiny-happy PR that shies away from any dissonance. Anyway, here's me hoping ...

Young academics who can't get jobs are an issue - what will be the impact of this, do you think?

I don't know - arguably it might not be a bad thing for uiversities to slim down in some ways - there may be too many of them, in the US certainly it is an issue.

But the main problem I see is that for the younger academics there is no protection to speak out at all. And perhaps no time with the publishing focus.

My feeling is there may be a sort of mini-revolution, maybe over education as a whole, and in terms of what employers ask for. It's becoming financially unsustainable for many students as well. But it may be very messy and a few institutions will come out the other side.