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Publishing work critical of your institution’s (e.g. religious) values?

In our newest “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

How do you handle publishing work that could appear to be critical of values held by your institution? Imagine you’re publishing on atheism at a religious school. Philosophers are good at distinguishing between endorsing a view and defending it or recognizing the weight of reasons behind it. But students and administrators are not always. There are ways of making clear that you are interested in a position, or find an argument persuasive, without accepting it, e.g., saying as much in print, or offering the argument conditionally. But I suspect that some will take up a more political stance and see any interest in certain views as damning enough. How might one handle such situations?

Do any readers have helpful insights or experiences to share?

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8 responses to “Publishing work critical of your institution’s (e.g. religious) values?”

  1. Anonymous

    First, I don’t know your affiliation with the university, but make sure you’re not doing something that breaks a contractual clause you signed on to. You probably aren’t, but always worth a double-check.

    Second, the reality is that, unless you’re a very, very famous person, basically nobody will read your research. So, while I grant some people could have a bad reaction, the probability of this happening is really slim.

    Now, if you’re wanting to place at a religious school, then you might want to be careful, since hiring committees will at least skim abstracts if you get far enough in a search. But even here, most religious faculty generally understand that there are some merits to arguments for atheism, and some demerits for some religious objections to atheism as well.

    Reply
  2. Anon

    Bryan Caplan published “The Case Against Education,” and he’s been just fine. And you can’t get more against your institutions values than that!

    Of course, I suspect there are subjects that might get one into trouble, e.g. anti DEI stuff. Though, even there, the probability it will create a problem seems low.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      Yeah, the institutions probably realize that the real world impact of work that is critical of them is nil

      Reply
      1. Anonymous

        To be clear, I’m making no claims here about whether others will *read* the work. I’m making a claim about *impact*.

  3. Anonymous

    I think one could agree with the comments that our work likely will not make a serious impact. But OP doesn’t seem to have that worry in mind. They seem concerned with the possibility of internal issues. One’s department or dean or various folks in the administrative chain could be fine with the scholarship, but if, say, a student gets worked up about something a professor writes and goes militant, what should one do? It is not unheard of for students to go on witch hunts. And one could imagine student families, or donor, being concerned with faculty scholarship, supposing it it brought to their attention (by the witch hunters). I don’t think I have advice for OP beyond wording things carefully and not making a splash about one’s scholarship. But I don’t think shrugging and assuming no one cares quite gets at things, or takes head on OP’s (perhaps nightmare scenario) concerns.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    I am reminded of a story about Mike Birbiglia asking Seth Meyers whether Lorne Michaels will be upset that Birbiglia’s movie, Don’t Think Twice, somewhat lampoons Saturday Night Live.

    Meyers responded matter-of-factly, “He’s never gonna see your f*ckin movie.”

    That’s my same basic answer here. If you are really worried, just give the piece a title that does not make the criticism obvious. It is virtually guaranteed that no one who would care will actually read the whole piece.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    I disagree with the comments saying “don’t worry, nobody will read it.” I think this strongly depends on the type and culture of the particular institution. When I was younger I studied at a SLAC with a protestant religious affiliation. The community was small and religious enough that word would have gotten around pretty quickly if one of the faculty was publishing things that conflicted with official institutional values. I could imagine this creating problems for faculty, for instance in promotion decisions. To be clear, there were actual instances of people being denied tenure based on religious policies rather than the quality of their work.

    I loathe this type of institutional culture and find it to be an affront to academic freedom and good scholarship and teaching. I would not take a job at this type of institution. But I get that the job market is difficult and jobs at SLACs, which in the US often have a religious affiliation at least on paper, can be desirable. If I was in such a setting and wanted to keep the job I would wait until I was tenured to start publishing anything that might concern the administration. But frankly, I wouldn’t find it tolerable to keep working at a place with a sense that my academic views were being surveilled.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    I would say that if you work at a religious institution (or want to work at a comparable one in the future) that it’s ill-advised to publish on any topic, or with a perspective, that could be viewed as at odds with the institution’s values. Most board members or trustees, or Provosts or Presidents, will not discern the difference between exploring a view, endorsing a view, and appraising arguments for a view that you may not hold. And in the present culture wars / politicized climate, all that is needed is for a disgruntled alumnus, or former student, or a scrutinizing board member, or a faculty colleague (even in another dept) to sow the seeds of you not being properly committed to the school’s religious mission by pointing to some paper you published, and you could be denied promotion or tenure, or even have your job terminated. It is usually very easy for admin / trustees to get rid of faculty at such institutions, since usually their tenure rules do not allow much freedom of speech or scholarship, even if the (current) culture of the place operates differently, and even if it had previously tenured or kept around faculty who have published or expressed themselves similarly.

    For that matter, you’d want to watch what you might publicly say about your institution or its mission/commitments on social media… e.g., I know philosophers who are atheists at Catholic colleges, and who routinely voice their views on religion, or abortion, or whatever, and I suspect that under the right circumstances this could come back to haunt them professionally. All it could take is for someone to argue that their speech shows they are “not aligned with the university’s Catholic mission” to make trouble for them.

    Reply

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