Is Scholar-Activism an Oxymoron? Reflecting on the Challenges and Opportunities for Scholarly Activism or Activist Scholarship in the Politics and Gender Field

Scholar-activism, which we define as scholarship that seeks to contribute knowledge to activism is often underappreciated. From a methodological perspective, the positionality of scholar-activists is too often misunderstood. Yet scholar-activism is a relatively common approach to generating new knowledge about hard-to-access, repressive contexts while also assisting political movements and their strategies. Feminist-informed scholarship necessitates scholar-activism because it is driven by an emancipatory purpose that demands critical reflexivity about the power of epistemology, boundaries, relationships, and the researcher’s situatedness (Ackerly and True 2020, 22). We argue that a deeper understanding of scholar-activism and lived experiences is vital for furthering knowledge and impact in the politics and gender field.

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Publication Details

Journal
Politics & Gender
Published
2025-04-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743923x25000194
Citations
6
Primary Topic
Social Science and Policy Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
32.05
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article

Is Scholar-Activism an Oxymoron? Reflecting on the Challenges and Opportunities for Scholarly Activism or Activist Scholarship in the Politics and Gender Field

Vasil Navumau, Magda Lorena Cárdenas, Parviz Asadi, Victoria Scheyer et al.
6 citations
Politics & Gender
Social Science and Policy Research
32.05
article

Is Scholar-Activism an Oxymoron? Reflecting on the Challenges and Opportunities for Scholarly Activism or Activist Scholarship in the Politics and Gender Field

Vasil Navumau, Magda Lorena Cárdenas, Parviz Asadi, Victoria Scheyer, Julia Zulver, Rana Dadpour, Jacqui True, Ruby Lai, Farkhondeh Akbari, Daniela Philipson García, Hana Hanifah, Olga Matveiva, Alesia Rudnik, Hanna Manoilenko, Aida Abbashar, Isabella Aung, Priya Dhanani
article en
6 citations

Abstract

Scholar-activism, which we define as scholarship that seeks to contribute knowledge to activism is often underappreciated. From a methodological perspective, the positionality of scholar-activists is too often misunderstood. Yet scholar-activism is a relatively common approach to generating new knowledge about hard-to-access, repressive contexts while also assisting political movements and their strategies. Feminist-informed scholarship necessitates scholar-activism because it is driven by an emancipatory purpose that demands critical reflexivity about the power of epistemology, boundaries, relationships, and the researcher’s situatedness (Ackerly and True 2020, 22). We argue that a deeper understanding of scholar-activism and lived experiences is vital for furthering knowledge and impact in the politics and gender field.

Politics & GenderVol. 21(4)
Swedish Defence University (SE), Council on Foreign Relations (US), Lingnan University (HK), The University of Melbourne (AU), St George's, University of London (GB), University of Toronto (CA), Durham University (GB), European Council (BE), Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (AU), Karlstad University (SE), City St George's, University of London (GB), Monash University (AU), James Cook University (AU), Umeå University (SE), Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Social Science and Policy Research
32.05
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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