Do Native and Nonnative English Speakers Face Equal Epistemic Challenges in Academic Philosophy?
Global linguistic justice in academic philosophy has been a topic of debate lately in academic papers and informal discussions (including a thread in the Philosophers’ Cocoon here). This debate mainly concerns whether or to what extent nonnative English speakers are structurally disadvantaged in academic philosophy, and whether there is anything we can or should do to mitigate these potential disadvantages. For example, the Barcelona Principles for a Globally Inclusive Philosophy, written as a manifesto by Filippo Contesi and signed by 756 people to date, identifies potential issues that nonnative speakers of English may face in philosophy in various contexts and commits to taking deliberate steps to address such structural disadvantages.
I have been involved in developing and maintaining the Barcelona Principles project since 2022 and have been working to promote BP both at individual and institutional levels together with others. I believe that the BP has been pivotal in the profession for starting an honest discussion about the role of English in academic philosophy, especially in analytic philosophy. However, I also understand that for some philosophers the lack of sufficient empirical data on this topic constitutes a worry against such initiatives. Although some analyses of the native-speaker status of authors in publications can be found (e.g., Schwitzgebel et al., 2018 and Marsili et al., in-progress), no systematic study has been conducted to collect data from native and nonnative English speakers about different challenges they may personally experience when doing philosophy in academic English.
I am now part of a team led by Uwe Peters (Utrecht University) that is trying to change this by running a large-scale, international survey to gather the relevant data. The survey, which is the first of its kind, asks you, for example, how long it may take you to read, write, or understand a philosophy article or presentation in English and in your mother tongue. The aim is to quantify and compare the epistemic efforts needed by native and nonnative English speakers to do philosophy at an international level. To get an accurate picture of these effects, no matter whether you are a native or nonnative speaker of English, we would greatly appreciate your participation.
To participate, you only need to have studied, be studying, or be doing research in philosophy. The survey is short, taking less than 15 minutes to complete, and won’t collect any identifying personal data. Your participation would be invaluable for our project and your responses could have a real impact in efforts to make the field more inclusive.
You can access the survey in English through a secure link here.
If you have any questions or thoughts about the project, please email us ([email protected]).
Thank you very much for your time and contribution!
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