If There’s No Causal Model, It’s Just Activism: An Autoethnographic Reflection on Criminology’s Rejection of the Scholarvist Model

This paper uses autoethnographic analysis of my journey through higher education and a decade on the tenure track to examine the structural barriers that hinder the Scholarvist approach to criminology. Drawing on personal journals, email exchanges, and a longitudinal incident log, I identify recurring themes of fear of retaliation, denial of opportunity, personal and professional insult, and the devaluation of scholarvism, alongside moments of institutional support. Together, these experiences demonstrate how criminology’s entanglement with state power, grant funding, and rigid definitions of rigor has constrained the criminological imagination. Situating these patterns within broader disciplinary shifts from humanistic to positivist approaches, this paper illustrates how scholarvism is routinely dismissed as “just activism.” I conclude that scholarvism is necessary to restore humanity in our research, expand methodological legitimacy, and reengage with the criminological imagination.