Challenging Exclusionary Patterns in Violence Research

• In Event: Critical Theory and Violence: New Areas and Approaches

Abstract

The best starting point to challenge, employing a philosophy of science approach, the knowledge production of, and problems within, mainstream research on interpersonal violence is to connect the dots between former feminist movements that also ignored women of color and how it has influenced mainstream scholarship in the present. While many mainstream scholars have finally taken into consideration literature from the humanities such as Black feminism and decolonial thought, this article asserts that mainstream research continues to reproduce the same exclusionary patterns seen since the early feminist movements. Furthermore, this article discusses the persistent influence of the punitive justice paradigm, which remains deeply rooted in scholarship and continues to remain unchallenged in a serious and widespread manner. This article explains that some of these issues are not necessarily as a result of bias, but out of necessity such as the "publish or perish" culture in academia, deeply rooted white supremacy in the ivory tower, constraints tied to government funding, among others. The overarching argument is that for mainstream faculty researchers in the field of interpersonal violence to truly become critical, scholars must be incentivized to do so and supported while doing it.

Author

• Brandie Pugh, West Virginia University