I finished today the second day in a 3 day PhD course organised by the
Centre of Women and Gender Research at the University of Oslo. Uma Narayan's book
Dislocating Cultures and her other work we discuss, is very inspiring and invites me to reflect on my own postion as a researcher. I enjoy the afternoon meetings in a smaller group: Lotta, Anne Merete, Marisa, Jenny, Susanne, and Cicilie. Tomorrow is the last day and my proposal for a paper will be based on Nayaran's discussion of cultural relativism. Narayan states that the view of 'culture' she endorses, is not form of relativism because she rejects the claim that "all perspectives and takes are equally good or equally valid. While I indicated that I think there are good reasons to listen to a variety of perspectives on an issue, I do not think that one can or ought to regard them as equally credible or worthy of respect" (Narayan, 2001). I have argued before that all knowledges are valid - though that does not mean that they are all equally good. This is what I try to express with the concept of
cognitive justice.
On a sadder note: it seems that one of the participants, Jacqueline, has been told that she is not longer welcome in our course. One or two other participants seem to have complained to the administration about the fact that she was a MA student and not working on a PhD project related to the course. Were her observations not 'academic" enough? My academic career as a PhD student in Norway is just one week old. What about my observations?