Rahsaan Mahadeo | Providence College (original) (raw)
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Papers by Rahsaan Mahadeo
Critical Sociology, 2023
This paper seeks to decenter the academy as the gatekeeper of knowledge, while presenting a criti... more This paper seeks to decenter the academy as the gatekeeper of knowledge, while presenting a critique of 'public sociology' and 'public-facing' scholarship. I argue that public sociology's aim to make research more 'accessible to a wider audience' presupposes that the university has something to offer to this audience in the first place. This not-so-tacit arrogance only further privileges the university as the primary site of knowledge production, while rendering invisible the many knowledge producers outside the academy. As public sociology continues to curry favor with mainstream media, politics, and policy institutes, it reveals a steadfast faith in the state and capital, while obscuring radical alternatives. In turn, public sociology functions as a counterinsurgency tool via professionalization. Conversely, a counter-public sociology refuses to comply with oppressive state protocols. Instead, it seeks to dismantle them. A counter-public sociology aims not to affirm the university, but to insist that this current academic enterprise remains untenable.
Theory in Action, 2019
Heeding Hortense Spillers' warning about the limitations of language and dangers of solecism, thi... more Heeding Hortense Spillers' warning about the limitations of language and dangers of solecism, this paper serves as an introduction for an academic "grammar book." I explore what it means to live, labor and learn in a land-grab, not a land-grant institution; an educational system that is more private, than public; a corporation with greater educational opportunists than educational opportunities; and a tower that is as anti-ebony as it is ivory. A new academic grammar book benefits not only those concerned with measuring what they intend to measure, but also those intent on razing what is already raised and steadily rising.
The Sociological Review Online, 2022
The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2019. Major: Sociology. Advisors: David Pellow... more University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2019. Major: Sociology. Advisors: David Pellow, Joyce Bell. 1 computer file (PDF); iv, 275 pages.
Theory in Action, 2019
Heeding Hortense Spillers’ warning about the limitations of language and the dangers of solecism,... more Heeding Hortense Spillers’ warning about the limitations of language and the dangers of solecism, I present a potential introduction to a new academic “grammar book.” Seeking greater grammatical correctness and accurate action, I explore what it means to live, labor and learn in a land-grab, not a land-grant institution; an educational system that is more private, than public; a corporation with greater educational opportunists than educational opportunities; and a tower that is as anti-ebony as it is ivory. Seeking potential escape routes from the anti-ebony tower not only involve a “criminal relationship,” as proposed by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, but also consideration of what it means to steal from that which is already stolen. Because discourse is power, grammatical correctness is paramount for insurgent intellectuals. A new academic grammar book benefits not only those concerned with measuring what they intend to measure, but also those intent on razing what is raised and rising.
Why Is the Time Always Right for White and Wrong For Us? How Racialized Youth Make Sense of Whiteness and Temporal Inequality, 2019
"What time is it?" is a seemingly benign question asked to orient a person to time and space. The... more "What time is it?" is a seemingly benign question asked to orient a person to time and space. The banality of this question should not excuse what are arguably serious limitations. Rather than using an adjective (i.e., what), it may be more sociologically productive to use a determiner (e.g., whose). Asking "Whose time is it?" alludes to the inherent power relations associated with time that privilege some at the expense of others. In reframing the question, we open possibilities to appreciate the way time is experienced differently between individuals and groups. Investigating the different dimensions of power associated with time also reveals how individuals and groups are rendered legible, illegible, and/or nonexistent within conventional temporal terms. As an application of 770469S REXXX10.1177/2332649218770469Sociology of Race and EthnicityMahadeo research-article2018 Abstract Independently, the study of whiteness and the study of time are important interventions in sociology. A solid foundation for any empirical investigation of the relationship between whiteness and the racialized temporalities of racialized youth, however, has yet to be set. Drawing on data from 30 in-person interviews and ethnographic methods, the author explores how racialized youth interpret time in relation to whiteness and the experiences of white youth. The data for this research are based on more than one year of fieldwork at Run-aWay , a multiservice center for youth. Results show that racialized youth view white youth as having more time to take advantage of educational and employment opportunities. As a result of the perceived temporal advantage held by their white counterparts, racialized youth expressed feelings of temporal inequality and disparate life chances. Forced to work twice as hard to be half as good, youth saw their time horizons as compressed. The author shows how racialized youth lose time through physical, psychic, and emotional labor required to process racialization and racism and illustrates the various structural mechanisms that steal their time. Despite the temporal inequalities between them and their white counterparts, youth at Run-aWay discovered ways to invert the terms of temporality to ensure that their culture was always most relevant and "up to date." Although whiteness is linked to modernity and that which is future oriented, racialized youth viewed their white counterparts as behind time, lame, or just plain "wack" (uncool).
Critical Sociology, 2023
This paper seeks to decenter the academy as the gatekeeper of knowledge, while presenting a criti... more This paper seeks to decenter the academy as the gatekeeper of knowledge, while presenting a critique of 'public sociology' and 'public-facing' scholarship. I argue that public sociology's aim to make research more 'accessible to a wider audience' presupposes that the university has something to offer to this audience in the first place. This not-so-tacit arrogance only further privileges the university as the primary site of knowledge production, while rendering invisible the many knowledge producers outside the academy. As public sociology continues to curry favor with mainstream media, politics, and policy institutes, it reveals a steadfast faith in the state and capital, while obscuring radical alternatives. In turn, public sociology functions as a counterinsurgency tool via professionalization. Conversely, a counter-public sociology refuses to comply with oppressive state protocols. Instead, it seeks to dismantle them. A counter-public sociology aims not to affirm the university, but to insist that this current academic enterprise remains untenable.
Theory in Action, 2019
Heeding Hortense Spillers' warning about the limitations of language and dangers of solecism, thi... more Heeding Hortense Spillers' warning about the limitations of language and dangers of solecism, this paper serves as an introduction for an academic "grammar book." I explore what it means to live, labor and learn in a land-grab, not a land-grant institution; an educational system that is more private, than public; a corporation with greater educational opportunists than educational opportunities; and a tower that is as anti-ebony as it is ivory. A new academic grammar book benefits not only those concerned with measuring what they intend to measure, but also those intent on razing what is already raised and steadily rising.
The Sociological Review Online, 2022
The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2019. Major: Sociology. Advisors: David Pellow... more University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2019. Major: Sociology. Advisors: David Pellow, Joyce Bell. 1 computer file (PDF); iv, 275 pages.
Theory in Action, 2019
Heeding Hortense Spillers’ warning about the limitations of language and the dangers of solecism,... more Heeding Hortense Spillers’ warning about the limitations of language and the dangers of solecism, I present a potential introduction to a new academic “grammar book.” Seeking greater grammatical correctness and accurate action, I explore what it means to live, labor and learn in a land-grab, not a land-grant institution; an educational system that is more private, than public; a corporation with greater educational opportunists than educational opportunities; and a tower that is as anti-ebony as it is ivory. Seeking potential escape routes from the anti-ebony tower not only involve a “criminal relationship,” as proposed by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, but also consideration of what it means to steal from that which is already stolen. Because discourse is power, grammatical correctness is paramount for insurgent intellectuals. A new academic grammar book benefits not only those concerned with measuring what they intend to measure, but also those intent on razing what is raised and rising.
Why Is the Time Always Right for White and Wrong For Us? How Racialized Youth Make Sense of Whiteness and Temporal Inequality, 2019
"What time is it?" is a seemingly benign question asked to orient a person to time and space. The... more "What time is it?" is a seemingly benign question asked to orient a person to time and space. The banality of this question should not excuse what are arguably serious limitations. Rather than using an adjective (i.e., what), it may be more sociologically productive to use a determiner (e.g., whose). Asking "Whose time is it?" alludes to the inherent power relations associated with time that privilege some at the expense of others. In reframing the question, we open possibilities to appreciate the way time is experienced differently between individuals and groups. Investigating the different dimensions of power associated with time also reveals how individuals and groups are rendered legible, illegible, and/or nonexistent within conventional temporal terms. As an application of 770469S REXXX10.1177/2332649218770469Sociology of Race and EthnicityMahadeo research-article2018 Abstract Independently, the study of whiteness and the study of time are important interventions in sociology. A solid foundation for any empirical investigation of the relationship between whiteness and the racialized temporalities of racialized youth, however, has yet to be set. Drawing on data from 30 in-person interviews and ethnographic methods, the author explores how racialized youth interpret time in relation to whiteness and the experiences of white youth. The data for this research are based on more than one year of fieldwork at Run-aWay , a multiservice center for youth. Results show that racialized youth view white youth as having more time to take advantage of educational and employment opportunities. As a result of the perceived temporal advantage held by their white counterparts, racialized youth expressed feelings of temporal inequality and disparate life chances. Forced to work twice as hard to be half as good, youth saw their time horizons as compressed. The author shows how racialized youth lose time through physical, psychic, and emotional labor required to process racialization and racism and illustrates the various structural mechanisms that steal their time. Despite the temporal inequalities between them and their white counterparts, youth at Run-aWay discovered ways to invert the terms of temporality to ensure that their culture was always most relevant and "up to date." Although whiteness is linked to modernity and that which is future oriented, racialized youth viewed their white counterparts as behind time, lame, or just plain "wack" (uncool).