Woven together: advocacy and research as complementary

Abstract

One of the many important contributions of second-wave feminist scholarship was the re-positioning of scholarly activity as being necessarily situated in relation to 'I.' This insistence on standpoint, or positionality, was coupled with a contribution from postmodernism, which challenged the notion that (universal) truths could circulate without specific attachments to people and places. Advocacy was a less used word, but the position taken in this paper is that every piece of research, in all science, carries with it the potential for advocacy. Drawing on the author's own experiences of advocacy as interwoven though her career as a lawyer and an academic, this paper examines various aspects of the intersection of advocacy and professional work.One of the many important contributions of second-wave feminist scholarship was the re-positioning of scholarly activity as being necessarily situated in relation to 'I.' This insistence on standpoint, or positionality, was coupled with a contribution from postmodernism, which challenged the notion that (universal) truths could circulate without specific attachments to people and places. Advocacy was a less used word, but it is my position that every piece of research, in all science, carries with it the potential for advocacy. This means that each researcher has a standpoint and a worldview that is imbricated in the research she carries out. That standpoint becomes advocacy, which might be understood as action in the service of a particular group, cause, or individual, when the researcher's self-reflexive engagement with her research moves her to transform her research into action, which can take any number of forms. These might include donating time, money, and energy, making public presentations, speaking to the press, agitating for legislative change, lobbying political players, and so on. It may include providing a group with information so that it can be sparked to advocacy. The boundaries around what we describe as advocacy are blurry, but mobilization of researcher standpoint is a key element. Standpoint does not mean the type of self-absorbed Twitter postings that tweets one's personal life and 'important' engagements, but rather Religion, 2014 Vol. 44, No. 2, 276-288, http://dx.

Advocacy in the study of religion\s

“…(Beaman 2014) Some marginal or controversial religious groups have by different means and to different degrees been actively seeking to attract the attention of scholars in order to gain legitimacy or in order to act as a counterbalance to prejudice or perceived misrepresentations by other actors in the field (Barker 1995, 305;Dawson 1998, 9). In this issue, Massimo Introvigne (2014) reviews the intervention of academics in a series of legal cases (first in the United States, then in Europe) in which the concept of 'brainwashing' as a supposed mechanism of covert and deceptive persuasion and mind control was of paramount importance.…”

“…While she did not then do advocacy for specific religious groups, she noted how her 'preconceived notions of religions were shattered through my experiences with my clients' (Beaman 2014). Main activities are testifying as an expert or filing an amicus curiae brief.…”

“…'Advocacy is often not viewed as a valuable contribution to intellectual life, despite an increasing pressure to inform policy decisions and to produce deliverables beyond traditional academic publication' (Beaman 2014). As Beaman points out, the role of advocacy continues to be devaluated within the academy (not only in the study of religion\s).…”

“…Beaman speaks of 'a dialectical relationship between the aspects of my work that involve activities that are not strictly 'academic' and those that are more firmly located in traditional academic activities such as publishing and conference presentations' (Beaman 2014). Beaman speaks of 'a dialectical relationship between the aspects of my work that involve activities that are not strictly 'academic' and those that are more firmly located in traditional academic activities such as publishing and conference presentations' (Beaman 2014).…”

“…Religion, as Beaman points out in her article, 'has been foregrounded as an identity category in policy, public discussion and the media during the past decade or so, especially when there is something negative to be said' (Beaman 2014). Neither the illegal migrants studied in their co-authored book nor the people benefitting from the hospitality house are primarily defined in religious terms.…”