Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

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