This research assistant posting seeks to “investigate resources, approaches, limitations, and obstacles within Western academic philosophy for engaging in conversations with philosophical thinkers who are marginalized by or outside of the discipline as it is traditionally conceived and practised within the academy.”  Ethnography, known in some contexts as audience participation, is at play here.  That’s where interaction and conversation leads to new insights about one or many topics.

Research in this vein will “identify and develop strategies for forging currently uncommon philosophical conversations.” Sounds fun, right? For instance, academic Marxists have a somewhat well-worn language to address groups in new ways.  They rebrand small business entrepreneurs as petit-bourgeois elements and criminal skivers ripping of the SERB Covid welfare system as lumpenproletariat elements.  Elsewhere, whole undiscovered vistas of meanings and definitions within disparate realms may await the fearless inquiry of researchers.  After all, though we all share similar human bodies and brains, are minds are as divergent and fleety as we allow them to be.

Meanwhile, specific groups are concretely marginalized by the philosophical industry.  Ever try and talk music theory to a hip-hop enthusiast? Or say you’re a logician seeking to understand a poet who has sold her possessions to seek enlightenment on a wing and a prayer: there appears to be little in common from which to forage affinity.  This research seeks to make liminal a ground for understanding between divergent worldviews.  “To reflect upon the challenges they experience in encountering philosophical thought outside the tradition” here means “to identify and generate concepts and theories that can both make sense of these experiences” where, metaphorically, different parties are speaking different languages.  Sounds like a fun party!  In small groups of three to five participants, ideas and methods will be exchanged and pondered.

Leaving aside the twists and turns of current events, a deeper thrust toward a meaningful life thrives within our academic minds.  Yet, all too often, traditional philosophical currents can seem as stultifying as a math textbook.  And that’s without the answers conveniently placed on the back pages!  Analytic philosophy, parsing and dissecting the world in a systematic manner may be a good way to discover truth but, when we consider plurality as the baseline of being human in an active way, an awful lot of ways and means of thinking fall by the wayside or are actively suppressed.  Meanwhile, continental philosophy speaks a whole other language, replete with metaphor, wordplay, and intriguing ambiguity.  Rarely do the two entwine, with the recently deceased Alain Badiou as a rare (but disputed) exception—he connected math and philosophy, demonstrating that any discourse has hope for success!

Often our beliefs divide us based on their epistemic backgrounds; imagine how difficult it would be for a post-Freudian to discuss phallic symbols as markers of cultural power when faced with the turgid aridity of TED-talks-inspired adherent to some self-help guru mantra?  Literature reviews, research questions, and conceptual analysis will all forge a framework that the researchers and supervisors will utilize going forward.

Unfortunately, or quite reasonably given your stance on interdisciplinary research (ie.  AU’s MAIS program), the successful applicant needs to already have a philosophy degree.  Other than that, “applications should include (as a single PDF file) a cover letter that addresses the job description and outlines your qualifications, current resume of CV, and the contact information of 1 – 2 references.” Further inquiries can be sent to Dr.  Suzanne M.  McCullagh at smmcullagh@athabascau.ca

For more information, see the original posting.  Best of luck!