ECREA16-Abstract

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Friday, November 11

1 8 : 0 0 – 1 9 : 3 0

YEN01

YECREANetwork Roundtable: The Silence of the Scholars? Rethinking the (Public) Voice of Academia

S. De Vuyst

Gent University, Gent, Belgium

What is the role of social sciences and humanities scholars in society? How visible should findings be and how valuable is their impact on society? Nowadays,

academics are facing recurring but conflicting strands of critique regarding their role in the public sphere. Many critics ask if an alleged self-sufficiency and

a perceived danger of scholar losing touch with social realities stands in the way of a possible, more general purpose and relevance for society. Another line

of critique states that scholars ought to observe and analyse society but that it is not theirs to comment or intervene. In this panel we address questions

of whether scholars –and young scholars in particular– should aim to make their voice heard in the public, which corresponding challenges they face if they

decide to do so, and what argumentative positions might highlight the necessity of being cautious or staying completely out of the public arena The pan‑

el addresses particularities of reaching out to the public and making research heard beyond comparatively-small academic communities and journals.

The panel’s goals are twofold: In a more hands-on approach, the panelists provide a glimpse of their particular experiences of reaching out to the public,

their interaction with media professionals, journalists or as public speakers, performers, artists and other performative or interventionist approaches. This

part of the panel provides counsel for young scholars considering their first steps of communicating their research to a broader public. Scholars in atten‑

dance should receive supportive hints about what to expect, how to deal with insecurities about their own role and how to cope with potential backlash

from the public. Is public visibility a way to build social capital that also translates into academic capital, or can public visibility also prove a hindrance to

furthering one’s academic future? How does public outreach affect your academic profile (e.g. is it harmful for your research to be associated with a clear

position on certain issues)? How to decide whether you are qualified to give an answer and speak your professional opinion? Do you need to be a versed

journalistic writer yourself? How to be witty and charismatic in front of a microphone? Should you seek training in rhetorics or body language, or is it enough

to be authentic as a professional scholar? In addition to this hands-on“how-to”perspective, the panel’s second major goal is to discuss the role of academia

for and in society in more general terms. The panel will contest conceptions of how and why to breach scholars’“solitary confinement” in their ivory tower

(and what about myth of the “ivory tower” itself?).Is scholars’ (alleged) silence in public debate a consequence of how academic reputation is built and

success is measured –in a tendentially self-referential system of impact metrics and citation indexes? Is our knowledge too vague and volatile to be publicly

acknowledged? Should academia have some kind of actual activist or interventionist ambition, or is the impact and resonance of our research beyond our

competence and authority?

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Contribution by Joanna Zylinska

J. Zylinska

University of London, Goldsmiths, London, United Kingdom