Native Scholarship: The Enigma of Self-Definition Among Jewish and Mennonite Scholars
The perennial search for a way to bridge the gap between human experience (both past and present) and academic discourse has produced an impressive array of theoretical perspectives and research strategies. However, despite attempts to depict the relationship between the self and other, few have considered the impact of native scholarship on the construction of knowledge. This paper examines Mennonite and Jewish scholarly efforts to represent and/or invent their own particular traditions and proposes that their frequent appeals to particularistic sentiments, which often offend academic sensibilities, raise crucial questions and offer unique insights into historical and sociological analysis.