The other day CLA called with news that a Geneseo professor that she'd liked was giving a talk this coming Monday called
"Against 'Sexual' 'Assault' 'Awareness'". Today Jezebel provides details. I am not inclined to delve into the scholarship which Theodore Everett has produced*, but as a social thinker he impresses me as kind of an asshole. Actually, he seems to me as a particular kind of asshole, the kind who builds elaborate strawmen, then tears them down in the belief that in so doing he has established his case. Because he is obviously a smart guy this probably fools some people, but it irritates me, and not just because he's making my alma mater look bad. I'm all for academic freedom, and that means that I absolutely defend Professor Everett's right to be an asshole. What I am opposed to is the kind of intellectual slight of hand that he seems to like to engage in. I've had a look at the study about campus sexual violence that his talk is apparently intended to rebut, and as someone who has litigated cases involving campus sexual assault I find nothing in its methodologies or its conclusions that is inconsistent with my observations. This cat seems like a crackpot, and like someone who is bad at punctuation.
(I had a look at what his students have to say on RateMyProfessor, and he seems popular. So there's that.)
* I'd be interested in Mrs. Smart's take on his paper on inductive reasoning.
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