In case it’s missed on this holiday weekend (for those who feel like celebrating America), a piece in today’s Chronicle of Higher Ed, Can Feminist Scholarship Stop Sexism?, by Becca Rothfeld, a new Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at Harvard, is worthy of note. It includes extensive analysis and critique of Living a Feminist Life (Duke University Press 2017) by Sara Ahmed, a lesbian scholar of color who resigned her professorship of race and cultural studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2016, in protest of lax policies on sexual harassment. It also focuses acerbically and rather delightfully on how to handle “men who publicly express admiration for Susan Sontag but make a private career of intimidating [academic] women” (a phenomenon also known to present in women, of course). Does not actually answer the title question when it comes down to it — is the answer so self-evident, perhaps? — but no, it is an excellent question. Deserves a read in any event.
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-Feminist-Scholarship-Stop/240428?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=a2db62102eef4f81a115c49ed8828d38&elq=7a3f6d282b344b7396679d2d42bc73e5&elqaid=14575&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6148
ps: And this is my nominee for a tribute to the Glorious Fourth: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lin-manuel-miranda-releases-powerful-immigrants-video-w490151