Academic Journals Get Punked By Academics

Unfortunately, their exposure makes an appearance at the Modern Language Association (MLA) convention unlikely.

“Seven journals accepted the fake papers, which were written by James Lindsay, a mathematician; Helen Pluckrose, editor of Areo; and Peter Boghossian, an assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University,” Robby Soave reports in Reason. If you look at the titles, you will see how they could blend into the current academic landscape.

The Wall Street Journal found that

~”One of the trio’s hoax papers, published in April by the journal Fat Studies, claims bodybuilding is ‘fat-exclusionary’ and proposes ‘a new classification…termed fat bodybuilding, as a fat-inclusive politicized performance.'”

~”A hoax paper for the Journal of Poetry Therapy describes monthly feminist spirituality meetings, complete with a ‘womb room,’ and discusses six poems, which Mr. Lindsay generated by algorithm and lightly edited.”

~”Affilia, a peer-reviewed journal of women and social work, formally accepted the trio’s hoax paper, ‘Our Struggle Is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism.'”

Soave points out that Lindsay, Pluckrose, and Boghossian also found a home for a fourth paper, “Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at Urban Dog Parks,” in Gender, Place and Culture.

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