This course is part of HF's PhD week.
Course content
Researchers and society at large expect research to produce knowledge that is relevant beyond the academy itself. Sometimes researchers are motivated at the outset by quite particular social and political objectives. Or our research may bring us into contexts that trigger political engagement. At the same time, the legitimacy of scholarly knowledge is often assumed to require some form of objectivity, so that scientific scholarship can provide a common ground of knowledge for diverse social and political commitments.
How do we negotiate the relation between social and political aims and values, on the one hand, and the requirements of scholarly values in the production of knowledge, on the other? This is a central question in debates on scholar activism.
This is a 1 ECTS course.
Course preparations
Reading
Course participants will read about 100 pages of mandatory readings and select at least 100 pages of your own choice from the lists of suggested readings. You will also read the essays by participants in the same groups as yourself.
Click here to view the curriculum.
Writing
Participants will write two texts. These should be uploaded to the digital course site by 27th May.
- a brief response-paper (1 page) where you critically engage with a proposition in one or several of these texts. The reflection note is expected to respond explicitly to course literature.
- a brief essay (1-1/2-pages) critically reflecting on and relating themes from the workshop to your own field or research project.
Some questions that may be addressed are these:
- Does my project intersect with issues of social justice? If so, how?
- Could my research play a role in political disagreement? Should this affect my work?
- Might scholarly values be in tension with political or moral values? Might such tensions arise in my own project? How are they to be handled?
- Does a commitment to scholarship limit or preclude activist engagement?
- Are there social or political constraints on acceptable research questions in my field?
- What forms can scholarly efforts for social change legitimately take?
- Should scholarship aspire to political neutrality?
In class
Your writings will be the starting points for our discussions—in groups and plenary. Expect an interactive and problem-driven day filled with intellectual engagement with core issues in the theories of humanities.
In the morning we will discuss issues arising from your response-papers. After lunch we move on to your essays centering on your own field or research project.
Everyone is expected to have read all texts submitted by the other course participants in the small groups they will work. Groups are published in the digital learning platform two days before the course at the latest.
Professor of philosophy Bjørn Torgrim Ramberg, IFIKK and professor of history Hanne Hagtvedt Vik, IAKH will facilitate the discussions.
Language
The course language is English, including reading responses and essays. We will switch to Norwegian in class if everyone is able to follow what is being said.
Registration
Courses are open for PhD fellows, completion grant holders, and post-doctoral fellows at the Faculty of Humanities, other UiO faculties and external PhD fellows. Candidates admitted to the PhD programme at HF are given priority if signing up before 1 March.
Registration opens at noon on February 20.
Click here to register for the course
Course conveners
Contact persons: Bjørn Torgrim Ramberg and Hanne Hagtvedt Vik
IFIKK, responsible department
IAKH, contributing department