Abstract

Place is not a neutral backdrop against which knowledge production unfolds; it plays an important role in academic practice on many levels, namely in negotiations of what counts as proper knowledge. Specific places are invested with epistemic authority, and thus lend credibility to the knowledge claims produced or presented within them. Place can, therefore, be a valuable resource for academics, especially those working in marginal fields – like Women’s, Gender, Feminist Studies (WGFS) – who are under pressure to prove the value of their work. In this article, I focus on negotiations of the status of WGFS, asking how WGFS scholars strategically use place to build credibility and community for the field. To do this, I draw on a longitudinal ethnography of Portuguese academia, and explore two different types of place. I begin with a discussion of conference venues, using data on two events to analyse how WGFS scholars try to locate conferences in specific places to access particular audiences and create certain moods. In the second example, I zoom in on a bookshelf – a familiar, but overlooked, micro-place – asking how such small but valuable places of WGFS visibility are created and invested with meaning and emotion. Through these examples, I demonstrate that place is very significant in negotiations of the status of WGFS. It is significant not just because of the epistemic credibility it may bestow, but also because of the affective and emotional impacts it may have on the individuals and communities involved in those negotiations.

摘要

地方不是知识生产展开的中性背景；它在许多层面的学术实践中发挥着重要作用，即在关于什么是适当知识的谈判中。特定的地方被赋予了认知权威，因此赋予了在其中产生或呈现的知识主张的可信度。因此，对于学者来说，地方可以成为宝贵的资源，尤其是那些在边缘领域工作的学者——如妇女、性别、女权主义研究 (WGFS)——他们面临着证明其工作价值的压力。在本文中，我将重点讨论 WGFS 的地位，询问 WGFS 学者如何战略性地利用场所来为该领域建立信誉和社区。为此，我借鉴了葡萄牙学术界的纵向民族志，并探索了两种不同类型的地方。我首先讨论会议地点，使用两个事件的数据来分析 WGFS 学者如何尝试将会议定位在特定地点以接触特定受众并创造特定情绪。在第二个示例中，我放大了一个书架——一个熟悉但被忽视的微型场所——询问如何创建这些小而有价值的 WGFS 可见性场所，并赋予其意义和情感。通过这些例子，我证明了位置在 WGFS 地位的谈判中非常重要。这不仅是因为 微场所——询问如何创造出如此小而有价值的 WGFS 可见性场所，并赋予其意义和情感。通过这些例子，我证明了位置在 WGFS 地位的谈判中非常重要。这不仅是因为 微场所——询问如何创造出如此小而有价值的 WGFS 可见性场所，并赋予其意义和情感。通过这些例子，我证明了位置在 WGFS 地位的谈判中非常重要。这不仅是因为它可能赋予认知可信度，但也因为它可能对参与这些谈判的个人和社区产生情感和情感影响。