Academic freedom, religion and social science

Stories from the front

Douglas V. Porpora

pp. 113-132

in: Kenneth García (ed), Reexamining academic freedom in religiously affiliated universities, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

Drawing on personal stories, this chapter illustrates the conflicts and resistances religious scholars face in the social sciences when they try to speak or analyze from that perspective. While the social sciences have been welcoming of analyses from women's or other minorities' perspectives—from queer perspectives, for example—anything too suggestive of a religious or spiritual perspective remains an academic Other, not to be countenanced. Although often funny, the stories cited in the chapter illustrate how this particular closure, far from being value-neutral, actually compromises the objectivity of social science.