How the Woke Academy Emerged
On December 20, 2021, Dr. Frances Widdowson, an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies, was fired from Mount Royal University because President Tim Rahilly stated that her employment with the institution was no longer viable. Harassment and code of conduct policies had been weaponized to stifle her criticism of various "woke" initiatives.
This is part of a wider trend emerging in universities. Since the 1960s, universities have been gradually turning away from their academic mission towards advocacy.
The trend was made possible because relativistic postmodernism undermined The Enlightenment's support for logic, reason, and the pursuit of a universal truth. This disarmed the academy, and enabled "applied postmodernism" (identity politics) to gain a foothold in programs that were supposed to be academic. At this time, advocacy programs uneasily co-existed with academic departments.
After 2010, however, applied postmodernism began taking over the machinery of universities with Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) offices and other policies that supported identity politics. This enabled postmodernism to become "reified"; it now could be officially demanded that identities perceived to be oppressed be "made real". "Reified postmodernism" (the academic term for "woke-ism") also became a useful tool for corporatized universities, which have used woke-ism's support for arbitrariness and totalitarianism to manage their "employees" (professors) and satisfy "customers" (students).
The Organization of WokeAcademy.Info
The WokeAcademy.Info website will have three main areas – the MRU Frances Widdowson Firing, the Rational Space Disputations, and Books and Articles. The three areas are briefly discussed below.
MRU Frances Widdowson Firing
An overview of Frances Widdowson’s firing by MRU has been provided in three sources. The first is the C2C Journal article by Peter Shawn Taylor, “Academic Freedom vs. Wokeism: The Frances Widdowson Affair“. The second is an interview with Meghan Murphy on The Same Drugs. The third is an interview with I.J. Makan on Frances Widdowson’s YouTube Channel. Following from these sources, details are organized into six “episodes”.
Rational Space Disputations
In the Rational Space Disputations, Frances Widdowson invites a different guest on each week and they interview one another. In the first hour, Widdowson interviews the guest about their work, and ties this to woke-ism and the situation at universities. In the second hour, the screens are turned, and the guest interviews Widdowson about her ideas, research, and experiences with woke-ism at MRU.
Books and Articles
