{"id":83118,"date":"2018-01-30T12:35:35","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T11:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=83118"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:55","slug":"een-politiek-spel-met-namen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/01\/30\/een-politiek-spel-met-namen\/","title":{"rendered":"Name politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

It was a typical academic workshop. \u201cMadhu Madhu\u201d was the next presenter. This Indian female academic came on stage and started to explain the politics behind her name and how it went wrong. Her name was just \u201cMadhu.\u201d Not \u201cMadhu Madhu.\u201d<\/p>\n

In India, you can tell a person\u2019s caste by his\/her last name. There is pervasive discrimination based on the caste to which you belong. Since you are born into a caste, there is absolute immobility. This is a barrier to social equality, also in academia.<\/p>\n

For these reasons, she was politically motivated to drop her last name.<\/p>\n

When she applied to do this workshop in the United Kingdom, she explained her name change multiple times to the organisers. However, columns needed to be filled and this diverged from academic protocol. Hence, the organisers gave her the name \u201cMadhu Madhu.\u201d<\/p>\n

One might argue that whilst her politics are relevant and convincing in her local context, academic standardisation exists to avoid exceptionalism. It would be a privilege for Madhu to change bibliographic standards. It would emphasise her social capital against all those who do not have power to enforce their own name politics. A worthwhile case for academic democracy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an accomplished American academic Danah Boyd has succeeded in establishing her name in small letters. Many academic editors and scholars respect her decision, defying citation rules. A few years ago, when I insisted on publishing my paper in a top journal with her name in capital letters (as I am against any kind of exceptionalism), the editors threatened that if I did not subscribe to this format, my article would be rejected.<\/p>\n

The reason for her name change? In her blog,<\/a> she explains that it is for aesthetic and political reasons. She argues that capitalisation is \u201cself-righteous.\u201d She argues for \u201cminimalizing the individualization.\u201d She is indignant to follow any template, after all \u201cit\u2019s my name and I should be able to frame it as I see fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

This well meaning political statement has inadvertently over-emphasised her individualism.\u00a0Through her act of demanding the right not to subscribe to the system, she has forced those with less status to subscribe to her<\/em> system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whilst there are good arguments for re-examine naming in academic citations, making specific allowances for certain scholars over others reminds us that academia continues to be elitist.<\/p>\n

Payal Arora is an Associate Professor at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t

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