Dissertations are fun. I am… not in the majority in thinking so, I am well aware. The Ph.D’s themselves probably disagree with me the most. But I enjoy sitting for 40-some minutes and listen to actual, honest to the Gods, new knowledge being presented with the hope of being accepted by the scientific community as Science[tm]. To try to follow along. To try to make sense of years of nerdy study distilled into a pellet-sized argument for its validity to the growth of mankind’s understanding of the universe.
Yes. I think that’s fun.
Last Friday one such dissertation took place at Stockholm University’s department of material chemistry. Even before it got underway, there was buzz enough about it to send the fuzz to watch it. And at the ass end of it, the presentation was cut short and aborted. Not because of chemistry. Which seems to me to be an utter failure for everyone involved. The dissertation wasn’t aborted due to controversial data. People weren’t escorted away by the coppers because of some revolutionary new spark of knowledge.
No; the dissertation was shut down because the Ph.D. student decided to make loud proclamations of support for the Iranian regime, by dedicating the dissertation to Ayatollah Motahhari and General Qasem Soleimani. Which sparked uproar. And prematurely ended the dissertation.
No one seems to give a shit about what the Ph.D. student Vahid Saadattalab’s paper was really about. Instead, all eyes rest upon his ardent support of the Iranian regime, and the university’s reluctance to let him voice that support.
Saadattalab can be heard wanting to claim his right to freedom of speech. The university doesn’t want to become a political battleground between the Iranian regime and its opposition. And angry audience members do not want the regime to score such easy points while hundreds, fuck knows how many, are dying in the Mahsa Amini revolts currently rocking Iran.
So what.
It’s nothing strange that Ph.D. students make dedications for their work. Mothers, fathers, siblings, husbands, wives. However, it is uncommon to name government officials. Universities don’t generally object to mentions of family members. But they don’t generally have to take a stand on the mention of government officials. Government officials aren’t generally considered martyrs, nor are they usually also considered monsters and terrorists… But those are easy labels to peddle these days. And dissertations are very, very, very rarely aborted because the Ph.D. student derail themselves, send their work down the fucking river, only to make a political statement like this.
This… circus may be many things. But whatever else people may think that it is, it’s a fucking travesty of science. And that, itself, is sheer heartbreak.
/Sebastian Lindberg 7/3-2023
WastedWords 