Hypatia transracialism controversy

The Hypatia transracialism controversy began in March 2017 with the publication in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy of an article, "In Defense of Transracialism", comparing the situation of Caitlyn Jenner, a trans woman, to that of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who identified as black.^[1]^[2] The author, Rebecca Tuvel, assistant professor of philosophy at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, argued that "[s]ince we should accept transgender individuals' decisions to change sexes, we should also accept transracial individuals' decisions to change races."^[3]

The 15-page article was criticized on social media as a "product of white and cisgender privilege".^[4]^[5] In April 2017 an open letter to Hypatia's editor-in-chief—with over 800 signatories, including academic philosophers—urged the journal to retract it.^[6] Naming Alexis Shotwell, a member of Hypatia's editorial board, as its point of contact, the letter criticized Tuvel's vocabulary and scholarship.^[7]^[8] In publishing the article, the letter said, Hypatia had sent a message that "white cis scholars may engage in speculative discussion of these themes without ... engagement with those theorists whose lives are most directly affected by transphobia and racism."^[6] Tuvel became the focus of intense personal criticism, including hate mail.^[4]^[9] On 3 May the names of the letter's signatories were removed.^[6]^[7]

The episode revealed a schism within Hypatia's editorial team.^[5] Cressida Heyes, one of its associate editors, responded to the open letter on 30 April by posting an apology on Facebook from "a majority of the Hypatia's Board of Associated Editors", maintaining that the article should not have been published.^[7] Announcing a week later that the matter had been referred to the Committee on Publication Ethics, the journal's editor-in-chief, Sally Scholz, said she stood by the article and that, in apologizing for its publication, the associate editors had acted independently. Scholz was supported by Miriam Solomon, president of Hypatia Inc.'s board of directors.^[5]^[10]

Jesse Singal of New York Magazine described the controversy as a "massive internet witch-hunt". The philosophy community responded with support for Tuvel. Brian Leiter, the philosopher of law and author of a popular philosophy blog, wrote that he had "never seen anything like this in academic philosophy".^[7]

Hypatia

Overview

Founded in 1986, Hypatia is a philosophy journal based in the United States and published by John Wiley & Sons. The journal is owned by a non-profit corporation, Hypatia, Inc., registered in April 2008 in the State of Washington, and run by a board of directors.^[11]^[5] The purpose of the non-profit is "to foster feminist scholarship in philosophy and related fields, including through the publication of the academic journal Hypatia". Miriam Solomon, professor of philosophy at Temple University, has been president of the board of directors since 2016.^[12]

Sally Scholz, professor of philosophy at Villanova University, became editor-in-chief in 2013.^[13] In addition to the editorial staff, there is (as of May 2017) a 25-strong editorial board, 10 members of an advisory board, 12 local editorial advisors, and a board of 10 associate editors.^[8]^[a]

Board of associate editors

The apology for Tuvel's article was published by Hypatia's board of associate editors.^[5] The role of the associate editors is to find and appoint the editors-in-chief, who are hired for five-year terms; advise on editorial policy; help to find and review submissions; and find and elect new associate editors.^[11] As of May 2017, the associate editors were Linda Martín-Alcoff, Ann Cahill, Kim Hall, Cressida Heyes, Karen Jones, Kyoo Lee, Mariana Ortega, Ásta Kristjana Sveinsdóttir, Alison Wylie and George Yancy.^[8]

"In Defense of Transracialism"

Before it was published by Hypatia, Tuvel's article had been presented to a meeting of the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division in January 2017.^[14]^[5] Hypatia published it on 29 March 2017 after the usual double anonymous peer review and a review by the editor-in-chief.^[5]^[15]

Tuvel, who is writing a book on the "ethics of changing race",^[16] contrasted the situation of Caitlin Jenner, named Time magazine's Woman of the Year, and that of Rachel Dolezal, who lost her job and apparently remains unemployed.^[17] Tuvel argued in the article that "considerations that support transgenderism extend to transracialism".^[3] She addressed four objections to the position that individuals cannot change their race:

first, the idea that it is unacceptable to claim a black identity unless one has grown up with a black experience; second, the idea that society’s current understanding of race places limits on an individual's (perhaps otherwise) legitimate claim to change race; third, the idea that identifying as a member of another race insults or otherwise harms members of that race; and finally, that it is a wrongful exercise of white privilege for a white person to cross into the black racial category, and that such crossing is therefore wrong.^[18]

Criticism

In April the article became the focus of criticism on social media, particularly Facebook. Tuvel was called "transphobic" and "racist", and the article "violent" and "wack shit". According to Kelly Oliver, professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, several academics associated with Hypatia joined in the criticism and apologized individually for the article. An academic friend of Oliver's described one of the Facebook apologies as "like something ISIS makes its captors read in a hostage video before beheading them". Oliver writes that dissenters were shut down or afraid to speak up. Several people who wrote sympathetically to Tuvel in private attacked her in public. Others who posted criticism acknowledged privately that they had not read the article.^[17]

Nora Berenstain, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Tennessee, posted on Facebook that Tuvel "enacts violence and perpetuates harm" throughout the paper. Berenstain cited Tuvel's use of Jenner's former first name in brackets, which Berenstein called deadnaming; use of the terms "transgenderism", "biological sex" and "male genitalia"; references to surgery, which she wrote objectifies trans bodies; and a reference to "a male-to-female (mtf) trans individual who could return to male privilege", which Berenstain argued promotes "the harmful transmisogynistic ideology that trans women have (at some point had) male privilege". Berenstain also criticized Tuvel for failing to cite women-of-color philosophers or black trans women.^[7]

Open letter

An open letter began to circulate, which by 3 May had attracted over 500 signatories. Addressed to "Hypatia Editor, Sally Scholz, and the broader Hypatia community", the letter's point of contact, according to New York Magazine, was Alexis Shotwell, an associate professor in Carleton University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and a member of Hypatia's 25-strong editorial board.^[7]^[8]

The letter included noteworthy signatories from senior figures in philosophy and feminist theory such as Judith Butler, Elise Springer, Alexis Shotwell, Lori Gruen, and Shannon Winnubst. ^[7] Lisa Guenther, associate professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, also acknowledged signing it.^[19] Gruen and Guenther were members of Tuvel's dissertation committee in 2014.^[20]^[19] On 3 May the signatories' names were removed.^[7]

Criticizing Tuvel's choice of vocabulary and references, the letter alleged that she had used "vocabulary and frameworks not recognized, accepted, or adopted by the conventions of the relevant subfields". The writers objected to the deadnaming, and argued that the term transgenderism was not acceptable, and that Tuvel had failed to "engage with scholarly work by those who are most vulnerable to the intersection of racial and gender oppressions (women of color)".^[6]^[7]

The letter urged Hypatia to retract the article; issue a statement taking responsibility "for the failures of judgment"; open its editorial procedures to scrutiny; release a statement about how it plans to improve its review process; undertake to involve in its review process in future "people targeted by transphobia and racism and scholars who specialize in the related relevant subfields of philosophy"; and avoid deadnaming.^[6]

Response to open letter

Associate editors' apology

On 30 April 2017 Cressida Heyes, professor of political science and philosophy at the University of Alberta, and one of 10 academics listed on Hypatia's website as "associate editors",^[8] posted a lengthy apology on Facebook from "a majority of the Hypatia's Board of Associated Editors".^[7] Heyes was one of the academics whose work Tuvel argued against in her paper.^[17]^[21] The apology stated that "clearly, the article should not have been published", arguing that:

to compare ethically the lived experience of trans people (from a distinctly external perspective) primarily to a single example of a white person claiming to have adopted a black identity creates an equivalency that fails to recognize the history of racial appropriation, while also associating trans people with racial appropriation.^[7]

A "more effective review process", the post continued, "would have prevented the "harms that have ensued from the publication of this article". The criticism of Tuvel that followed publication was "both predictable and justifiable", it said.^[7]

Author's statement

In response to the open letter, Tuvel said the article had been written "from a place of support for those with non-normative identities, and frustration about the ways individuals who inhabit them are so often excoriated, body-shamed, and silenced." She apologized for the deadnaming, and said she would have it removed from the article.^[4]

Expressing concern about the personal criticism, including hate mail, she had received from commentators who, in her view, had not read the article, she wrote that "critical thought is in danger", and that "the last place" she expected to find calls for censorship rather than discussion was from philosophers. She argued that failing to examine the "theoretical and philosophical questions" she had raised would "reinforce gender and racial essentialism."^[4]

Response to apology

Editor-in-chief and board of directors

Responding to the associate editors' apology, Sally Scholz, the journal's editor-in-chief, issued a statement on 6 May in support of Tuvel. Writing that Hypatia is an academic journal, "not a blog or a discussion board", she responded that "it is utterly inappropriate for editors to repudiate an article they have accepted for publication (barring issues of plagiarism or falsification of data)." The board of associate editors is a policy board with no role in the journal's management, she wrote, and it had acted independently in drafting and posting the letter.^[b]

Scholz was supported by Miriam Solomon, president of Hypatia Inc.'s board of directors. Solomon said the associate editors were "speaking for themselves", and that their apology did not represent the views of the editor-in-chief, the editorial advisers or the editorial board. Hypatia Inc. and the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, have referred the matter to the Committee on Publication Ethics.^[5]

Academic community

Brian Leiter, professor of jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School, wrote that he had "never seen anything like this in academic philosophy".^[7] There were suggestions that Tuvel sue for defamation.^[22] Paul Bloom, professor of psychology at Yale University, called the episode "a bizarre and ugly attack".^[7] Writing about the damage inflicted on Hypatia by its apology, José Luis Bermúdez, professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, argued that "[i]t is hard to see how this journal can retain academic credibility".^[22]

Agreeing with those who had criticized the paper, Claire Colebrook, professor of English at Penn State, suggested that it was overly abstract and had ignored critical race theory and the work of African-American women philosophers. Tina Fernandes Botts, assistant professor of philosophy at California State University at Fresno, presented a response to Tuvel's paper in April at the 2017 Res Philosophica conference on Race and Gender. Arguing that race is a function of ancestry in a way that gender is not, she told The Chronicle of Higher Education that there had been tension for some time between Hypatia and women-of-color philosophers, who felt that the journal did not take their work seriously. Tuvel's paper was not "situated within contemporary scholarly discussions", she said, something the peer-review process should have spotted.^[5]

Notes

^ As of May 2017, the editorial board had 25 members, including Samantha Brennan, Cheshire Calhoun, Ann Cudd, Peggy DesAutels, Miranda Fricker, Serene Khader, Kathryn Norlock, Jennifer Saul, Miriam Solomon, Shannon Sullivan and Charlotte Witt.^[8]
^ Sally J. Scholz (6 May 2017): "As Editor of an academic journal that espouses pluralism and diversity, I believe that Hypatia should publish on a wide array of topics employing a wide array of methodologies. I believe that a community of scholars should contest concepts and engage in dialogue within the pages of the journal to advance our collective project of educating—students and ourselves. I believe that an academic journal is not a blog or a discussion board.
I firmly believe, and this belief will not waver, that it is utterly inappropriate for editors to repudiate an article they have accepted for publication (barring issues of plagiarism or falsification of data). In this respect, editors must stand behind the authors of accepted papers. That is where I stand. Professor Tuvel's paper went through the peer review process and was accepted by the reviewers and by me.
"The Associate Editorial board acted independently in drafting and posting their statement. That board is a policy board and plays no role in the day to day management of the Journal.
"Since April 30, I have been working with the publisher, Wiley, to respond responsibly and appropriately. We have consulted with the corporation which owns Hypatia and, together, we are proceeding to refer the situation to Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for guidance."^[5]

References

^ Joseph Brean (3 May 2017). "After 'In Defense of Transracialism' sparks outrage, editors of philosophy journal castigate its Canadian author", The National Post.
^ Josh Glancy (7 May 2017). "Philosopher lashed for backing ‘transracial’ pioneer", The Times.
^ ^a ^b Tuvel 2017, 264.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lindsay McKenzie (1 May 2017). "Journal Apologizes for Article Likening Transracialism to Being Transgender", Chronicle of Higher Education.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Lindsay McKenzie, Adam Harris, and Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz (6 May 2017). "A Journal Article Provoked a Schism in Philosophy. Now the Rifts Are Deepening.", The Chronicle of Higher Education.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Alexis Shotwell, et al. "Open letter to Hypatia". Retrieved 7 May 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Jesse Singal (2 May 2017). "This Is What a Modern-Day Witch Hunt Looks Like", New York Magazine.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Hypatia Editorial Board", Hypatia. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
^ Scott Jaschik (2 May 2017). "Journal Apologizes for Article on 'Transracialism', Inside Higher Ed.
^ Suzanna Danuta Walters (5 May 2017). "Academe's Poisonous Call-Out Culture", The Chronicle of Higher Education.
^ ^a ^b "Hypatia governance", as adopted June 26, 2009 by the Hypatia Editors and Associate Editors, Hypatia.
^ "Miriam Solomon: Curriculum vitae", Temple University, 15.
^ "Sally J. Scholz: Curriculum vitae", Villanova University, 2.
^ "2017 Eastern Division abstracts of accepted papers", American Philosophical Association. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
^ "Review Policy and Practice", Hypatia. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
^ "Rebecca Tuvel", Rhodes College. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kelly Oliver (7 May 2017). "If this is feminism", The Philosophical Salon.
^ Tuvel 2017, 268.
^ ^a ^b Lisa Guenther (2 May 2017).Statement, Facebook.
^ Rebecca Tuvel (August 2014). "Epistemic Injustice Expanded: A Feminist, Animal Studies Approach", Vanderbilt University.
^ Tuvel 2017, 269.
^ ^a ^b José Luis Bermúdez (5 May 2017). "Defining 'Harm' in the Tuvel Affair", Inside Higher Ed.

Works cited

Tuvel, Rebecca (29 March 2017). "In Defense of Transracialism". Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. 32 (2): 263–278. doi:10.1111/hypa.12327. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)