re: Person as scientist

Diane Celia Hodges (dchodges@unixg.ubc.ca)
Wed, 21 Sep 1994 16:10:10 -0700 (PDT)

an excellent work in this area comes from feminist psychologist, Kum-Kum
Bhavnani, _Talking Politics_, a book written *with* teenagers (as opposed
to *about*), where they are all discussing
politics in a way which priveleges the students as intellectuals in their
own right. Her work is interested in demythologizing psychological
constructs of "intelligence", which is a worthy task, I'd say.
Her goal is to foreground the person as political scientist in this
specific work, but the idea that every individual is an intellectual in
their own way is, well, radical. Bhavnani's argument, that "intelligence"
concepts are material fictions, "racialized, sexualized discourses" is
truly radical for a psychologist, and an encouraging standpoint to take.

By way of intro, (ah, rehistoricizing myself), a
little: I am a graduate
student at University of British Columbia, in education; I have a fairly
strong background in psychology, and while part of me thinks that
sociocultural theory renders psychology a fiction, another part of me
thinks psychology could radicalize itself into something useful. Work
like that of Bhavnani's, actually, tends to go that way.
My current work is in intelligence fictions, and how they are passed on
in different communities, particularly professional communities like
universities, and teacher-training programs.

I am glad to see this network springing into such a provocative life:
while all thinking needs a community, radical communities need thinkers!

diane hodges
University of British Columbia
dchodges@unixg.ubc.ca