Finding Mothers: A Quest For Unheard Narratives

As Sociology and Anthropology students there are a few questions that we always ponder upon: What is knowledge? Who has the right to create knowledge? Which knowledge gets legitimized?  Who has the access to this knowledge?

When it comes to knowledge creation, there is a clear hierarchy as to whose knowledge gets legitimized. Academia occupies the highest position within this hierarchy. The discourse any sociological phenomenon gets recognized is when it is presented in the form of an academic publication. Professionals make clear distinction between their work and that of the ‘Other.’ In this case, academicians have created a social boundary between academia and the other professions by curating rules around methods, style and content of knowledge production. This boundary work is done in order to demarcate what is knowledge and what is not and ensuring the power dynamics between academicians and other professionals (Gieryn, 1983).

Knowledge produced in the form of publication poses issues of accessibility. Most international academic journals are published in the US or the UK and need a subscription in order to access them. This subscription cost poses an economic barrier for the common people. The style of writing and the language that academia deploys is extremely jargonised and loaded with theoretical parlance most times. Thus, the knowledge created within academia is gate-kept as a result of these economic and linguistic barriers.

There has been a lack of public intellectuals in our country which undermines a dialogue between academia and the people of the country. In order to make knowledge accessible to all and to convert theory into practice, there is a dire need to bridge this gap.

The learning of the discipline of Sociology begins with studying the classical thinkers, namely, Durkheim, Marx and Weber. The theories studied in class are those given by European or American ‘white’ men. Their ways of looking at the society become dominant within academia leaving very little space for narratives of the ‘Other.’ All the debates within the discipline steer around the three white men and their perspectives. The conversations within a class hardly ever revolve around women contributors of the field. Rarely do we learn about anthropologists and sociologists like Margaret Mead, Mary Douglas, Dorothy Smith and Patricia Hill Collins. Thus, there is an urgent need to give voice to the unheard, an unrecognized voice of women and the third gender within the discipline of studying society and sociology through their perspective. It is high time that we move away from the ‘Founding Fathers’ and go on a quest of ‘Finding Mothers’ of this discipline.

The Academy of Sociology and Anthropology aims to aid the gap between public intellectuals, their work and the folks through our upcoming conference ‘Finding Mothers’ scheduled on 12th and 13th February 2020. This conference attempts to create a synthesis between performers and academia as performers also need to be equipped with ethics of research in order to be sensitive about who are they representing and on the other hand academicians need to make their work accessible by understanding various performative ways of communication. We are inviting students from colleges across Mumbai and independent researchers to write academic papers on the theme, ‘Finding Mothers’ and present it in a creative format. We want to provide students with an opportunity to have their knowledge legitimized and recognized by using their creative techniques and skills. One can perform their paper in any art form of their choice, either a dance, song, slam poetry, monologue, skit, poster, etc. Through this, we also wish to connect academia to arts and make the knowledge accessible to people coming from a variety of fields  that may be unaware of our sociological lingo.

The theme for the conference is ‘Finding Mothers’ which is in line with my second argument about giving voice to the ‘Other’ of the discipline. We want students to present papers on the given theme by critically studying society through the perspective of the underrepresented genders and hence recognize these unheard narratives. Students can present on a range of topics such as Reproductive rights and Birthing practices, Founding mothers of various fields and their work, Symbolic Motherhood, Representation of Motherhood in media and literature and so on.

Please send us a concept note of 200-250 words with the medium of presentation by 20th January 2020 at findingmothers@gmail.com. For more information please visit our Instagram page- socioacademy.xaviers

Let us all together make this academic space more accessible and creative!

Written by:

Devashree Juvekar,

Chairperson,

The Academy of Sociology and Anthropology and Finding Mothers Conference.

 

REFERENCES:

Gieryn, T. F. (1983). Boundary Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science Strains an Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists. American Sociological Review. 48, 781-795.