Politicising the Humanities: Sociology as Case Study

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