Academic Vocabulary

One of the big hurdles of starting into any new kind of work and even any kind of new activity usually requires you to adapt to a new vocabulary.  I remember being completely lost in my first yoga class because I didn't know what downward dog, warrior, or eagle poses were (to name a few).  When, I began fundraising, I was unaccustomed to using the term "outcomes" in such a specific way that specifically referred to the success of clients being served and later on in my career, the term "legacy" took on a life of its own as it was a euphemism for asking people if they could give six figure gifts (thus, leaving a legacy) or not.  

Now that I am pursuing an academic career, I am also having to learn new vocabulary, but this time it isn't just about euphemisms and different ways of saying something. It's learning a lot of new words AND learning the philosophical concepts behind the use of these often complex terms.  In critical theory, which seeks to examine the social, historical, and ideological forces that shape culture and influence literature, some of these words are initially recognizable but seem completely out of place.  Take, for example, the word heliocentric.  Sure, I know this in terms of plants being attracted to the sun.  So, why is heliocentric being used by literary theorists so much?  It turns out that it is a useful term for critics who think that Western philosophy is too focused on itself to such an extent that it cannot include, no matter how hard it tries, classes of people who exist outside of Western norms.  

Similarly, the word "diversity", which is talked about all the time these days in the workplace and in politics, etc., becomes "heterogeneity" in critical theory.  The domestic worker becomes the "comprador periphery", the oppressed become the "subaltern" and similarities become "homologues".  Of course the nuance of using these more sophisticated terms does have a purpose and the purpose is to NOT make them synonymous with their more well-known iterations.  The subaltern only refers to a very specific set of oppressed people. Heterogeneity lends a more scientific view of the idea of diversity and multiculturalism.  

Right now my reading pace is banana slug slow, but I'm hoping that at some point I get into the groove of thinking about these words in a more natural and critical way.  It's humbling--and at times daunting--to have to learn so much new vocabulary, but like in my previous professions, it is also a useful tool for talking about specific, nuanced ideas. I'm finding that as I build this new vocabulary, I am also building new ideas because the two go hand in hand.