About this episode

Jonathan Kay interviews Ashley Rubin about the politicization of the humanities, focusing on sociology and recent scholarship reports.

Jonathan Kay speaks with University of Hawaii professor Ashley Rubin, co-author of the recently published Special Commission Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and the Humanistic Social Sciences. 00:00 Introduction: the Vanderbilt report 02:30 Do professional associations speak for the field? 05:35 What gets on the conference programme—and what doesn't 06:10 Why everyone picks on sociologists 08:05 The variables you're not allowed to test 11:15 "Prisoner resistance": how a concept got out of hand 14:00 A Marxist editor and the fear of seeming conservative 17:25 What the report does and doesn't claim 18:50 The Yale trust report and grade inflation 22:40 Activists, ringleaders and the silent majority 25:50 Inside the ASA boycott 28:45 Should sociology split into parties? 31:50 Durkheim on why disciplines need shared rules 34:30 Authoritarianism from your own side Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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