Scholarship cannot be politically neutral

Evidence

As I have characterized it in this study, Orientalism calls in question not only the possibility of nonpolitical scholarship but also the advisability of too close a relationship between the scholar and the state. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 825

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core claim of the book, stated in one sentence: knowledge production is inseparable from political positioning.
• XREF: Pairs with Gramsci’s organic intellectuals and Foucault’s power-knowledge, both scaffolding concepts for the Islamophobia module. — connects to: Scholarship is never neutral, so honesty requires declaring one’s standpoint; Scholarship can advance feminist knowledge without claiming a feminist identity.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 825