Julian Go

Prof U-Chicago. Postcolonial-Anticolonial theory; US & British Empire; Colonialism & other previously arcane topics. find me at

[Julian Go @jgo34]

Now available: Policing Empires: https://t.co/sXIyfgYCxM…. Promo code for 30% off is ASFLYQ6. Honored to have endorsements from these formidable writers

[Julian Go @jgo34]

These reports are simply universities officials attempt to appease the university-tech-military complex and keep the money flowing. “Don’t worry, we know we’ve been producing actual critical students, not subservient workers. But we’re fixing that, so keep funding us.”

[Julian Go @jgo34]

Yet no one wonders why these reports commissioned by uni officials basically rehash almost exactly the complaints of Marc Andreeseen & other tech capitalists that college graduates are not subservient enough to hire bc they are too critical of capitalism, colonialism & patriarchy

[Steven N. Durlauf @sndurlauf]

I strongly endorse this outstanding report, commissioned by Daniel Diermeier, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, and Andrew Martin, Chancellor of Washington University on the State of Scholarship. It is a cri de couer about the state of the humanities and the interpretive social sciences. The object of scrutinty is

"a deterioration in scholarly standards fueled by the substitution of political criteria for properly scholarly criteria in the assessment of research and a more general repudiation of longstanding ideals of rigor and objectivity."

The report is properly nuanced in identifying subfields in which the scholarly enterprise has been damaged and as opposed to blanket disciplinary condemnations because of problems in particular areas.

https://t.co/VhO4x4qOED

[Julian Go @jgo34]

tragic that supporters of these reports blame universities for low employment prospects in certain disciplines, etc. NOT the fact that the forces who fund their universities are creating economies where there simply aren’t jobs. These people need to read MORE social science.

[Julian Go @jgo34]

It befuddles me how the authors of these “reports” do not fathom that their project is basically cover for authoritarian states & industries to squash knowledge produced about colonialism, trans issues & other ‘leftist’ topics. All while complaining about politicization

[Jeffrey Flier @jflier]

This report on "the state of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences" by an impeccable group of scholars convened by Vanderbilt and WashU is among the most important pieces I've read re higher education and flaws that must be addressed. @HdxAcademy

[Julian Go @jgo34]

They also don’t seem to fathom that its university officials’ way to saying to funders who don’t like certain knowledge projects (about colonialism, trans issues, etc.) ‘hey it’s ok, we’re gonna root them out, please keep the $$ coming.’ It’s never really about scholarly truth

[Julian Go @jgo34]

@ErikLinstrum @seanjwestwood yes and aren’t the most egregious examples of psuedo-science found in recent cases in economics & ‘hard’ sciences that have basically been to found falsify data? Why aren’t they targeted in reports like these?

[Erik Linstrum @ErikLinstrum]

Honestly, any kind of review, second opinion, counterpoint, or opportunity for those pilloried in the report to respond would have made it a more credible exercise. Instead, you get people weighing in on things they don’t know very well, with cherry-picked examples, and it shows.

I can only speak from my experience in history but I don’t remotely recognize the caricatures of peer review that seem to be floating around this site.

[Julian Go @jgo34]

The irony is that these reports & others like them insist that scholarship needs to be rigorous & objective & yet these reports are the least rigorous & objective. How about you they some basic testing of alternative hypotheses before opining on the causes of subfields’ decline?

[Julian Go @jgo34]

To summarize the ignorant psuedo-sociology of knowledge in this report: if the state & populists attack a scholarly subfield, it must be bc that subfield is not ‘scientific’ or ‘objective.’ Its NOT bc it produces knowledge the state & populists don’t like. It’s the victims fault

[Julian Go @jgo34]

So the reason why humanities/socsci are underfunded is because they are not scientific & objective enough, as if right wing authoritarians don’t play a role. Are the CDC & climate research underfunded also because they are unscientific? This report is unserious.

[Julian Go @jgo34]

So the reason why humanities/socsci are underfunded is because they are not scientific & objective enough, as if right wing authoritarians don’t play a role. Are the CDC & climate research underfunded also because they are unscientific? This report is unserious.

[John Sailer @JohnDSailer]

Interestingly, the report immediately narrows its scope down to that last complaint, that scholarship has been overrun by political goals, distorting disciplinary standards and producing bad research.

[Kyle Olson @olsonkyleg]

you know how the clowns that clutch their pearls over “politicized distortion” in scholarship really give away the game? they never have a damn thing to say about the branches of the academy that are the R&D wing of the US military

[Julian Go @jgo34]

At the same time that they rant against anti colonial studies they insist that scholarship should aim for critical inquiry, empathy and human flourishing. Those goals are not political but anti colonialism is?

[Julian Go @jgo34]

another rant that says anticolonial studies are infected by politics & not true knowledge production. Used to be that those studies were seen, rightly, as prohuman & uncontroversial. Something has happened to change that. Could it be procolonial politics behind the rant?

[John Sailer @JohnDSailer]

Interestingly, the report immediately narrows its scope down to that last complaint, that scholarship has been overrun by political goals, distorting disciplinary standards and producing bad research.

[Julian Go @jgo34]

@CTMathewes Yes but the critiques of supposedly woke scholarship do not take that difference seriously enough if ever

[Julian Go @jgo34]

There once was this guy called Weber who might point out that having political goals in your scholarship is not the same thing as your scholarship being corrupted by them, unrigorous, biased or invalid.

[John Sailer @JohnDSailer]

Interestingly, the report immediately narrows its scope down to that last complaint, that scholarship has been overrun by political goals, distorting disciplinary standards and producing bad research.

[Julian Go @jgo34]

@jhimmelreich @BrianConnolly74 Is this an example? See my posts.

[Brian Connolly @BrianConnolly74]

It would be nice if a bunch of humanities and social science professors who write a report like this had even the vaguest sense of what ideology is and stopped pretending they are non-ideological….but that would be a naive of me

[Julian Go @jgo34]

2/2 do they not know that imperialism and inequality obliterates critical inquiry, empathy and human potential”? Come on folks, can’t you do better than this?

[Julian Go @jgo34]

this unrigorous reboot of Bloom says it’s ok for scholarship to have the goal of “critical inquiry, empathy, & the full spectrum of human potential..." but then says that scholarship adopting an antiimperial or pro-social equality goal is “politics” and corruptive? What? 1/2

[John Sailer @JohnDSailer]

Some notes in defense of the humanities and social sciences:

"By defending and investing in the humanistic disciplines, we affirm our commitment to a society that values critical inquiry, empathy, and the full spectrum of human potential..."

"Whilst there is no doubt that these disciplines in fact serve many positive social purposes, they serve these purposes best when they do not directly aim at shaping individuals or societies..."

[Tyler Austin Harper @Tyler_A_Harper]

Do the “universities are hotbeds of Marxist indoctrination” people have a favored explanation for why all of these alleged vipers dens of anti-capitalism primarily produce graduates that staff the Fortune 500?