Scholar Activism from the Right: Conservative Scientists Fighting Against Abortion and Environmentalism Within the Academy

• In Event: Science, Knowledge, and Technology Open Call Paper Session (Co-Sponsored by Global and Transnational Sociology Section)

Abstract

In North America, Europe, and other parts of the world that experienced student mobilizations in the 1960s, the phrase “scholar activism” generally evokes research, professors, students, and programs associated with progressive or leftist causes. From this perspective, the goal of scholarship should be to address the needs and perspectives of marginalized or oppressed groups, particularly those that were excluded from academia, including women, racialized groups, and queer people. But does scholar activism only apply to progressive causes? Or can scholar activism be used as a lens through which to analyze contemporary efforts by conservative and right-wing movements to promote their causes? This paper will argue that it can. To do so, it mobilizes ethnographic observation and interviews with conservative academics and experts involved in battles over abortion and climate change in the United States and France. By examining the relation between conservative academics and their allied social movements as well as their efforts to reorient the academy toward their reactionary goals, I find that anti-abortion and anti-environmental experts of today fit the description of scholar activists and that we should think of their work as such. Scholar activism from the right is effective at advancing conservative causes and reshaping the production of scientific expertise that both hurts the capacity of progressive researchers to conduct their scholarship and supports that of those on the right. Although abortion and climate change are distinct political and social issues with their own mobilization histories, this paper shows how scholar activists engaged within them use similar frames and tactics when it comes to the academy. Conservative scholar activists are not only committed to supporting people who share their worldviews. They also aim to reclaim their former status and eliminate progressive perspectives with the aid of politicians and their allies within the State.

Author

• Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, Université Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès