Hamilton's Diversity and Social Justice Project began its 2006-2007 series on "Activism in Academia" on Aug. 30 with a panel of Hamilton professors discussing their perspectives on the issue. The panel featured Vivyan Adair of women's studies, Doug Ambrose of history, Penny Yee of psychology, and Tiffany Patterson of Africana studies. The professors each shared their opinions on the place of activism and politics in the college classroom.
Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies, began the discussion by saying that the debate over activism in academia is actually an argument over what counts as knowledge and truth that belongs in the classroom. There is a fundamental disagreement, Adair said, between those who believe that there can be one truth and that it can be objectively taught, and those who believe that all knowledge is contextual, culturally bound, and exists within a power structure. She argued that people who criticize activism in the classroom are setting up a false dichotomy between truth and ideology, when all knowledge is actually influenced and reinforced by ideology. Those in academia who practice what might be called "activism" by challenging master narratives do so because they believe that it is the only way to approach any real truth and knowledge. Adair believes that it is this sort of education which can expand horizons and foster critical thinking, moral capacity, and social responsibility. Not to be in some way "activist" in academia, she said, is to pay short shrift to the potential benefits which education has for our society.
Associate Professor of History Doug Ambrose began his very different thoughts on the subject by asking, "What do we owe our students?" In Ambrose's opinion, college professors owe it to their students to stick to the facts of their discipline, rather than "reducing their classrooms into editorializing arenas." Professors are professionals, hired to share their expertise on a subject, not to provide running commentary on current events or bring their ideology into their lessons. In the classroom, Ambrose said, nothing is more important than teaching the subject in the spirit of an honest and non-politicized search for truth. While he acknowledged that politics will always inform academic work, Ambrose said that we must restrain the tendency to bring politics and ideology into the classroom when they don't belong. For example, he said, his views on contemporary American politics need not factor into a discussion of colonial American politics in any way. Ambrose concluded, "We must not allow the lectern to become a soapbox, or scholarship to become propaganda."
Associate Professor of Psychology Penny Yee began her remarks by noting that she falls somewhere in between Professors Adair and Ambrose. In her years of experience in academia, she said, she has learned that academics consume your life, and that it can be difficult to keep the personal and professional realms separate. One instance in which Yee said that the personal can appropriately be blended with the professional is when activism seeks to broaden educational opportunities. If institutions of higher learning truly believe in the power and importance of what they do, she said, they are obligated to address clear signs that there is an inequality of access to education. For example, she said, all college financial aid is really a sort of activism. By providing education below cost (even to students who are paying full tuition), institutions of higher learning are placing value on extending education to those who could not regularly afford it. Likewise, there are programs that promote interest in an academic discipline among groups that are regularly underrepresented in them. Yee gave the example of programs at Hamilton which seek to encourage interest in the sciences among females and high-risk adolescents in the surrounding community. These programs are activist, she said, because they intend to have an impact on the future direction of a discipline.
Associate Professor of Africana Studies Tiffany Patterson began by saying that she disagreed with Professor Ambrose's assertion that scholarship and politics can be neatly uncoupled. She argued that there are many times when it would be difficult for a professor not to reveal his or her opinions while remaining honest and informative to students. As a teacher of history, Patterson said that she finds it very useful to bring in current events to show students how the past still operates in the present. She gave the example of a time when she brought up the topic of last year's Duke rape scandal in her class in order to bring depth to a discussion of slavery and narratives of black female sexuality. Her students did not lose anything from their study of the topic by hearing this additional information, she said, and in fact they gained an application for what they were learning. While academics will have opinions, they need to recognize that theirs are not the only valid points of view. In her opinion, professors have a responsibility to express their opinions, while giving their students the ability to form their own informed and well-reasoned opinions. Patterson concluded by saying that this sort of discourse is what is required for a just and humane world.
The panel discussion concluded with questions and comments from the faculty and students in attendance on a variety of topics, from the importance of a "canon" in academic work, to the differing goals which education can have. The event was the first in a year long series by the Diversity and Social Justice Project which will explore different facets of the debate over activism in academia.
-- by Caroline Russell O'Shea '07
