Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
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.Yh~zne MU~LZPJ<br />
Acnder~~ic I.l.tchnnges<br />
The part that gender plays in academic power relations is difficult to ignore in a COI<br />
where, in addition to the (non-sexist) possibility of their research being plagiarise<br />
faculty members, female postgraduates can confront an abusive institutionalise<br />
abandon his or 11~1. work in favour of aulobiography and the specifics of<br />
personal history only (Walker 1990:7; and see Foucl~li. 1992; 1994).<br />
offering preferment in exchange for sexual labour. The struggle continues whe lnposition of the personnel ofthe university defined in tenns of gender, race and<br />
same senior colleagues act as editors with control over publication. One might awes the ability ofthose academics to work against domination. But with careful<br />
the question:<br />
What would [fclninism] nlcall within the manifold practices that constitute<br />
nation of their own practice academics can move beyond essentialist<br />
ination by social identity to clear a space for the (se1f)representation of South<br />
the university-to take only one terrain in which political struggle and<br />
academic enquiry arc enmeslied? (Schalkwyk 1990:661) We can use our positions as feminists within tlie academy to change current<br />
to have far reaching consequences when these practices, as in other institutions,<br />
reading practices (Ryan 1990:28).<br />
legacy of autocracy. But in a manoeuvre that will be repeated by other writers,<br />
Schalkwyk (1990:6 1) is able to deflect any analysis of institutionalised practices<br />
ontext where the university is one of the centres of the culture of imperialis~n as<br />
he site of its contestation, attention to social identity in the fonn of subjectthe<br />
pathos of generalised oppression that includes ality holds out the possibility of avoiding insensitivity:<br />
mein, marked. burdened for as long as the practices illat constitule it arc Historically produced differences between feminist academics and tlicir<br />
allowcd to continue, with the sign of the Phallus. subjects Iiiay. and allnost certainly do, lead to misunderstandings. blinclspots,<br />
insensitivity within feminist research. Elite researcl~ers. black and<br />
The sexism of academy gets lost behind a vision of feminism as an ethical project rat white. need to be acutely aware of this problem. But if ciiffcrence can also bc<br />
than a struggle with specific power structures and their beneficiaries. The sentilnen<br />
used creatively. to power a genuinely dialectical interaction between two<br />
empatliy is central to Cecily 1,ockett's ( 1990: 170 proposal that feminist academics<br />
vigila~~ily foregrounded subject-positions. perhaps more progress can bc<br />
~iiade towards understanding and changing tlie situation of all Soutll African<br />
will Ila\ic to dcvelop a tilore sympathetic womanist discourse for considering<br />
women(Arnott I991 : 127).<br />
tllc work of black women .... it is our place as educationally and<br />
institutionally privileged critics to listen to their voices as we formulate<br />
approaclles to tlicir work.<br />
atoly potential is dispersed into a general resource of academic autonomy and<br />
capable of subverting dominant discourses and practices. For Shireen Hassi~n<br />
rryl Walker (1992:83) what must be maintained is the difference between<br />
Olily then might it be possible 'to bring about a necessary paradigm shift in and an academic discourse that<br />
institutionalised power structures of English departments'. For Jenny de Re<br />
(1990:jl) the role of academic as empathetic auditor motivated by an ethics<br />
depends for its success on a different set of principles: rigour and clarity.<br />
solidarity is reassuringly unproblematic, and she offers the following prescript<br />
censure of prescription:<br />
intellectual honesty and adventurousness. These principles require a context<br />
of relative autonomy from the immediate political imperatives, cven tllougli<br />
they may be informed by broaderpolitical projects.<br />
Clearly, within tlie bounds of decoruni one can speak 'about' othcr people: Sisi Maqagi countered liberal complacency by linking academic practices to<br />
one can legitimately evaluate otiier people's strategies, theories and entity and political representation in order to position academics' historically<br />
practices. for example. Of course. \vlien tliey are academic. such<br />
undertakings must be sensitive, searching and not prescriptive.<br />
c interests. Recognition and reciprocity serve the ends of self-legitimation as<br />
exercise the 'habit' of power; generalising their particular interests and<br />
Ethics levels the playing-field of historical victi~nisation and empathy opens up the persisting distribution of the material means to enjoy rights. Maqagi<br />
decorous possibility of understanding and community; the legitimacy of the institu pointed to the unbridgeable experiential gulf opened by the racialised class<br />
and the efficacy of its discourses and personnel are vindicated. The faith is t 11 of South African academics offering sensitivity:<br />
responsible academics can work from within institutional discourse to transcend<br />
obvious limitations; otherwise<br />
Privilege, with all its concomitant oppressive structures. widens the gap<br />
between the experiences of black and white women. How can Lockett<br />
one would end up in a solipsistic cage where the liistorian woultf have to<br />
understand black women and tbeorise about tl~eir work when she is unable to<br />
shift froni her position?