A conversation about meritocratic ideology with Nora Migdad (podcast)
This is the second installment of my still fairly new series Philosophical Chats. In this episode, I have a conversation with Nora Migdad who majors in Biology and minors in Philosophy. Like me (but a long time ago), Nora is a first-generation student. While being a first-gen student is often (rightly) treated as lending itself to disadvantages, it also offers intriguing perspectives on the peculiarities of academic life.
Following up on a guest post about being a first-gen student, Nora eventually initiated a conversation about this topic. After some exchanges about possible questions to be addressed we finally found time for the virtual meeting recorded above. Among the issues we covered are:
- being a first-gen student 0:00
- work-pressure and hierarchies 11:17
- hierarchies, misconduct and prestige 12:32
- protecting harassers 15:00
- dealing with harassment outside and inside academia 22:40
- criticism within hierarchies in academia 31:52
- depending on others 34:50
- ideas for improvement 38:06
- dealing with sexism and racism 41:55
