[INDOLOGY] Sexism and Bias on INDOLOGY governing committee

Wed Apr 3 18:52:19 UTC 2019

Many thanks again to Audrey Trushcke for bringing up this important topic
once again. It is quite something to watch men on this list present
themselves as either sensitive to the issues of sexual bias and sexism or
hasty defenders of patriarchal system. The list of allies and adversaries
writes itself.

Certainly there are differences between North American and European
educational systems. In North America we have had more -- but still limited
success -- at breaking into leadership roles and dismantling the Old Boys
Clubs that run academia behind the scenes.

To be completely clear, in no way was the advance toward my student one of
ill-timing. In addition to the one-sided feelings that were expressed there
was an offer of research, employment, and a multi-day conference trip that
also included a side trip just for the student and professor. The initial
rebuff by my undergraduate student was not an apology by her
50-something-year-old professor and an ongoing professional relationship
but yet another effort to change the student's mind about her feelings. It
was not only inappropriate but so completely cliché that it could easily be
an example of "What Not to Do 101." Fortunately, my student felt
comfortable enough with my and another (female) member of faculty to
discuss the issue with us. Fortunately again for her, the undergraduate
representative and the (female) head of the department in which the
professor works (not mine) took the complaint seriously, advising her not
to attend any future lectures and assuring my student that her work would
be assessed by someone other than the professor who acted inappropriately.
"He was trapped" is a ridiculous thing to say. By whom was he trapped? As
far as I can see, there was no "trap," simply a man in power who felt his
feelings were so important that he repeatedly felt the need to lure a
student into a situation where he could get her away from the academic
space so that he could re-express already rebuffed feelings. The only trap
here is the system in which he thought this was an acceptable thing to do.

People fall in love. We are human. Many members of our field are married to
one another or other academics. That is not the issue here.

Some are quick to side with those who have been outed as predatory without
taking into consideration the feelings and experiences of those who have
felt victimized. The lessons of the Me Too movement are apparently slow to
permeate academics. The most fundamental lesson is to *listen to and
believe women*. We do not gain by bringing up these issues and in fact are
more likely to be punished, ridiculed, called difficult or troublemakers
when we do speak up. If you want to think about how to respond, look at
some of the (predominantly male) voices who have spoken up to say there
clearly is something worthy of discussion here. Think about how you can
respond in a way that doesn't diminish or dismiss a different perspective.
Read this:
https://www.polygon.com/2014/7/24/5933565/online-sexism-what-can-be-done-women-gaming-harassment

If you find it impossible to compliment a colleague, that's on you. Perhaps
reconsidering your approach and relationship to the women whom you would
like to compliment would help. I have cultivated personal friendships with
many, many men in my life. There are men on this list that I consider
personal friends who I look forward to seeing at the yearly conferences and
other rare instances in which members of our field gather IRL. I hope that
none of my friends, male or female, would hesitate to give me (or someone
else with whom they have a relationship of mutual respect) a simple
compliment. Start out by reading their work, discussing their ideas without
explaining their ideas to them, build a relationship of respect and safety,
ask how they are doing and listen to the answer. These simple things make
future compliments genuine and appreciated.

For those who do not feel that this is an appropriate topic of discussion:
You do not have to read all the emails sent to the list. You do not have to
police a discussion that others clearly do feel is both appropriate and
important. This discussion has brought out voices that are rarely heard on
this list. That is a good thing! If you feel threatened by this
conversation, think about why. What do you have to lose by learning
something about the experiences of others?

That I have been contacted off-list by multiple women who have seen this
discussion but not been able to join in for a variety of reasons
demonstrates that this is an important, necessary, and dangerous
discussion.

I am happy to continue this discussion on or off list. The gathering of
demographic data about our membership seems like a very good idea. It will
not only give us an idea about how dominantated by male perspectives this
list is but also likely a very informed overview of the demographics of our
field. Last year at AAR we briefly discussed the disparity in Yoga Studies,
with women forging the way in modern yoga studies while men continue to
command the historical and philological fields. One of the many reasons for
this disparity appears to be the systems of academia itself, which pushes
women onto certain paths while discouraging the exploration of others.
Perhaps simply quantifying how many women here listen but do not speak will
open some eyes to the many voices and perspectives that are not represented
in this forum and allow us as a group to consider how we might be more
welcoming to all members of the list, despite our varying perspectives.

Best wishes,

Patricia

On Wed, Apr 3, 2019 at 11:19 AM Camillo Formigatti via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
>
>
> Sorry for intervening again in this discussion, but I’d like to comment on
> a point raised by Dr Sauthoff and taken up again by Prof. Keating. I refer
> to this episode:
>
>
>
> Just last week a student came to me after her professor unburdened himself
> by professing his feelings to her -- two weeks before the end of class and
> placing her in a position where she was not sure if she would graduate
> because she rebuffed his (totally inappropriate) advances.
>
>
>
> I wonder whether is a cultural difference between North Americans and
> Europeans regarding what is considered inappropriate behaviour bordering or
> being sexual harassment. I hope I can explain what I mean in a clear way. I
> personally believe that this professor’s advances where not totally
> inappropriate, only the timing was inappropriate. His feelings towards this
> student were there anyway, regardless of the fact that he expressed them or
> not. He should only have waited the end of the classes, that’s it. Or maybe
> not even, because even if he had waited, he might have unconsciously
> favoured this student, in the hope that she would have returned his
> advances afterwards. Either way, he was trapped, in the sense that it
> wouldn’t have mattered whether he’d had chosen to express his feelings or
> not, by the moment he started to have feelings towards his student, his
> judgment as a mentor was clouded anyway. Now, I don’t see why having
> feelings towards another adult human being should be considered totally
> inappropriate. Obviously, all these considerations are moot if the advance
> was done in a pushing way with overt sexual behaviour, but since Dr
> Sauthoff did not describe the advance in detail, I don’t have any means to
> know. I’m making a general point here and I hope it is clear.
>
>
>
> Believe, I’m not kidding when I say that now I feel I can’t even make a
> compliment to a colleague about a new haircut or a nice dress—and I mean
> both a male or a female colleague—without the fear that he or she would
> feel harassed. This is how far political correctness has gone.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
>
> Camillo
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Malcolm Keating <c.malcolm.keating at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* 03 April 2019 07:08
> *To:* indology at list.indology.info
> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Sexism and Bias on INDOLOGY governing committee
>
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> 1. Regarding Dr. Truschke's concerns about gender parity, I would draw
> attention to an analogous effort being made in philosophy, which is a field
> that is also heavily male-dominated and has its share of problems with
> sexism, from egregious cases of harassment to pernicious and persistent
> cases of stereotyping. The idea of aiming toward gender parity in
> conferences has been present there for a decade now (see the "Gendered
> Conference Campaign" post at the Feminist Philosophers Blog:
> https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/gendered-conference-campaign/).
> This post includes links to some discussion about implicit bias, stereotype
> threat, etc. I raise the question of whether analogous efforts within
> Indology more broadly might not also have salutary effects.
>
> 2. I would like to echo Dr. Sauthoff's concerns about the experiences of
> women in academia. As another junior academic, I post to this list with
> trepidation, aware of its public nature and wide reach. At the same time, I
> have enough evidence, testimonial, perceptual, and inferential, to believe
> that there persist widespread problems in academia more generally, and
> Indian philosophy (my own subfield) more specifically. I also agree that
> the problems are more entrenched than what might be visible from the
> vantage point of most men, myself included. Perhaps these may be mostly
> structural, and not a matter of individual bad intentions. That possibility
> does not mean those of us within these structures aren't responsible for
> seeking solutions. And finally, if my female colleagues are speaking out at
> the risk of their reputations--at least in the sense of reputations for not
> stirring things up--I cannot simply watch. What the implications are for
> this list, I am in no position to say. However, I would like to add my
> voice to those who would like to see more discussion of how to create a
> more humane and equitable environment for scholars.
>
> Best,
>
> Malcolm
>
> --
> *Malcolm Keating*
> Yale-NUS College | Assistant Professor | Humanities Division (Philosophy)
> | malcolm.keating at yale-nus.edu.sg
>
> Office hours may be scheduled here: https://malcolmkeating.youcanbook.me
> Academic website: http://www.malcolmkeating.com/
>
>
>
> Subject:
>
> Re: [INDOLOGY] Sexism and Bias on INDOLOGY governing committee
>
> From:
>
> Audrey Truschke <audrey.truschke at gmail.com> <audrey.truschke at gmail.com>
>
> Date:
>
> 2/4/19, 8:11 pm
>
> CC:
>
> "Indology List (indology at list.indology.info)"
> <indology at list.indology.info> <indology at list.indology.info>
>
>
> Dear Friends and Colleagues,
>
>
>
> Dr. Silk raises a valid point, which is that I am slightly vague in my
> account of what has happened. I would encourage everyone to be sensitive to
> the fact that other committee members have repeatedly told me, often
> angrily, to not share their emails and to not discuss any of this with the
> list at large. There are real risks for women who choose to come forward
> with these sorts of concerns.
>
>
>
> That said, I do point to some specific things, such as an attempt to
> encourage me to resign when I pointed out bias (March 2019; in an e-mail),
> refusals to talk about possible bias (numerous e-mails; fall 2018), and
> persistent demands that I keep silent about what I experience as abuse and
> intimidation (repeated over the past year or so). To add another specific
> case, last week a committee member wrote to Dr. Paturi and chastised him
> for writing 'thank you' to the entire list regarding the post I sent around
> sharing Anand Venkatkrishnan's excellent blog post on female Sanskritists
> and sexism. Indology members say thank you to the list all the time without
> complaint, and so this was a targeted silencing of a discussion about
> discrimination against women in our profession (and it worked). I think
> this is a fair amount of precision and several discrete instances. I do not
> know whether the intent was sexist or biased in any specific case, but the
> effects were.
>
>
>
> So far as how to move forward, I recommend a few concrete steps. All are
> aimed to redirecting the committee's energy toward making both the
> committee and the list a more equitable, welcoming place. (1) I want gender
> parity, or at least approaching gender parity, on the INDOLOGY governing
> committee by adding female members. I think everyone on this list should
> value and want gender parity. (2) I want the committee to take further
> steps to address bias issues, whether that is bias training, a system for
> adjudicating complaints, shaking up committee membership, or something
> else. Whatever we decide, I would like those steps announced to the list at
> large. (3) Personally, I think that the individual who suggested that I
> resign after pointing out bias should instead, himself, consider stepping
> down. But I will not press this particular point.
>
>
>
> Another thing that I wish to achieve here is awareness and space for
> conversation. Indology as a discipline may be focused on classical India,
> but we exist in the modern world, and modern issues of bias are a
> legitimate topic for scholars to discuss on INDOLOGY (preferably without
> declarations by list members that a given discussion of bias and
> discrimination is inappropriate on INDOLOGY). I would like issues of bias
> and discrimination treated seriously on this list and on the governing
> committee going forward.
>
>
>
> Thank you for your time and consideration.
>
>
>
> All the Best,
>
>
> Audrey Truschke
>
> Assistant Professor
>
> Department of History
> Rutgers University-Newark
>
> Audrey Truschke
>
> Assistant Professor
>
> Department of History
> Rutgers University-Newark
>
> Subject:
>
> Re: [INDOLOGY] Sexism and Bias on INDOLOGY governing committee
>
> From:
>
> Audrey Truschke <audrey.truschke at gmail.com> <audrey.truschke at gmail.com>
>
> Date:
>
> 2/4/19, 8:11 pm
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>

-- 
Patricia Sauthoff
Post-doctoral researcher
AyurYog.org
Department of History and Classics
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada

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