Peter Boghossian

Boghossian was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts.{{cite news|work=The Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/peter-boghossian-the-woke-dont-give-a-reason-for-their-faith-its-different-rules-of-engagement-323hccf73|title=Peter Boghossian: 'The woke don't give a reason for their faith. It's different rules of engagement'|date=September 21, 2021|last=Charter|first=David|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250113051212/https://www.thetimes.com/article/peter-boghossian-the-woke-dont-give-a-reason-for-their-faith-its-different-rules-of-engagement-323hccf73|archive-date=January 13, 2025}} He is of Armenian descent;{{cite web |author1=@peterboghossian |title=Being Armenian—when my ancestors were subject to genocide and when my aunts and uncles were tortured and murdered—colors things. |url=https://x.com/peterboghossian/status/1585713373898895362 |publisher=Twitter |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241205101836/https://x.com/peterboghossian/status/1585713373898895362 |archive-date=5 December 2024 |date=October 27, 2022}} his paternal grandparents were Armenian immigrants.

File:Peter Boghossian (12).jpg

Boghossian received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Marquette University in 1988, and later earned a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from Fordham University in 1992. He later received his Doctor of Education in 2004 from Portland State University. His primary interests are critical thinking, philosophy of education, and moral reasoning. His thesis looked at the use of the Socratic method with prison inmates for critical thinking and moral reasoning with the intention of decreasing ongoing criminal behavior.{{Cite journal|last=Boghossian|first=Peter|date=March 2006|title=Socratic Pedagogy, Critical Thinking, and Inmate Education|jstor=23282687|journal=Journal of Correctional Education|volume=57|issue=1|pages=42–63}} The research was funded by the State of Oregon. Boghossian was Chairman of the Prison Advisory Committee for the Columbia River Correctional Institution. He is a fellow at the Center for Prison Reform.{{Cite web|url=https://centerforprisonreform.org/fellows/|title=Center for Prison Reform, Fellows|website=Center for Prison Reform|access-date=June 4, 2016|archive-date=June 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625144859/https://centerforprisonreform.org/fellows/|url-status=live}} He was employed as an assistant professor at Portland State University, quitting in protest due to what he viewed as a culture of illiberalism.{{Cite web|url=http://www.pdx.edu/philosophy/peter-boghossian|title=Portland State College of Liberal Arts & Sciences: Department of Philosophy {{!}} Peter Boghossian|website=www.pdx.edu|access-date=June 4, 2016|archive-date=December 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191217103942/https://www.pdx.edu/philosophy/peter-boghossian|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/my-university-sacrificed-ideas-for|title=My University Sacrificed Ideas for Ideology. So Today I Quit.|website=Common Sense With Bari Weiss|date=September 8, 2021|access-date=September 8, 2021|archive-date=September 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908130027/https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/my-university-sacrificed-ideas-for|url-status=live}}

Boghossian is the author of two books, A Manual for Creating Atheists (2013),{{cite news |last=Winston |first=Kimberly |date=November 18, 2013 |title=Got faith? 'A Manual for Creating Atheists' would like to change that |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/got-faith-a-manual-for-creating-atheists-would-like-to-change-that/2013/11/18/3a48cdb2-5090-11e3-9ee6-2580086d8254_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |accessdate=November 30, 2013 |archive-date=March 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327090827/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/got-faith-a-manual-for-creating-atheists-would-like-to-change-that/2013/11/18/3a48cdb2-5090-11e3-9ee6-2580086d8254_story.html |url-status=live }} a book with a foreword by Michael Shermer,{{cite news|last=Schulson|first=Michael|title=Atheist Philosopher Peter Boghossian's Guide to Converting Believers|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/02/atheist-philosopher-peter-boghossian-s-guide-to-converting-believers.html|work=The Daily Beast|date=February 11, 2013|access-date=May 22, 2016|archive-date=March 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324025604/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/02/atheist-philosopher-peter-boghossian-s-guide-to-converting-believers.html|url-status=live}} and How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide (2019).{{cite book|last1 = Boghossian|first1 = Peter|author-link1 = Peter Boghossian|last2 = Lindsay|first2 = James|title = How to Have Impossible Conversations|publisher = Da Capo Lifelong Books|year = 2019|isbn = 978-0738285320}} He also contributed a foreword to white supremacist{{Cite journal |last=Thieme |first=Katja |date=2022-07-03 |title=A Play on Occlusion: Uptake of Letters to the University President |journal=Rhetoric Review |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=226–239 |doi=10.1080/07350198.2022.2038510 |s2cid=250543502 |issn=0735-0198|doi-access=free }} commentator Stefan Molyneux's book Against the Gods.{{cite web |author1=Joel P. Christensen |author2=Matthew A. Sears |title=The Overlooked Messages of the Sokal-Squared Hoax |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/10/30/sokal-squared-hoax-was-put-down-scholars-concerned-racial-issues-opinion |website=insidehighered.com |access-date=April 16, 2019 |date=October 30, 2018 |archive-date=October 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030113656/https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/10/30/sokal-squared-hoax-was-put-down-scholars-concerned-racial-issues-opinion |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last1=Beauchamp |first1=Zack |title=The controversy around hoax studies in critical theory, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/2018/10/15/17951492/grievance-studies-sokal-squared-hoax |website=vox.com |publisher=Vox Media, Inc. |access-date=April 16, 2019 |date=October 15, 2018 |archive-date=April 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416195110/https://www.vox.com/2018/10/15/17951492/grievance-studies-sokal-squared-hoax |url-status=live }} He has characteized his collaborations with Molyneux as being based only on his agreement on matters of metaphysics, and not with Molyneux's political views.

In 2017, Boghossian was featured in Reasons To Believe, a documentary focusing on psychology and the science of belief.{{cite web |title=Prime Video: Reasons To Believe |url=https://www.amazon.com/Reasons-Believe-Michael-Shermer/dp/B074743PQN |website=Amazon.com |access-date=October 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001053616/https://www.amazon.com/Reasons-Believe-Michael-Shermer/dp/B074743PQN |archive-date=October 1, 2020 |url-status=live}}

He has been a speaker for the Center for Inquiry, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, and the Secular Student Alliance.Secular Global Institute: "[http://www.secularcouncil.org/team/peter-boghossian/ Peter Boghossian]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162749/http://www.secularcouncil.org/team/peter-boghossian/ |date= June 12, 2018 }}.

In September 2021, Boghossian resigned his position from Portland State University. In his resignation letter,{{Cite web |title=My Resignation Letter – Peter Boghossian |url=https://peterboghossian.com/my-resignation-letter |access-date=May 5, 2022 |website=peterboghossian.com |language=en-US}} he called the university a "Social Justice factory" and said that he faced harassment and retaliation for speaking out. The letter also accuses the university of creating a culture where students are "afraid to speak openly and honestly," of training students to "mimic the moral certainty of ideologues," and of "[driving] intolerance of divergent beliefs and opinions".

In November 2021, Boghossian was among the founders of the University of Austin, a school whose mission is "to create a 'fiercely independent' school that offers an alternative to what founders see as a rise in “illiberalism” on college campuses."{{cite news|last=Kelleher|first=Patrick|date=8 November 2021|title=Kathleen Stock helps launch new so-called university with 'forbidden courses' but no actual degrees|work=Pink News|url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/11/08/kathleen-stock-university-of-austin/}}

On February 17, 2022, he gave a conference on "wokism" at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) in Budapest, Hungary.{{Cite web |date=April 1, 2022 |title=En Hongrie, au cœur de la révolution conservatrice |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/en-hongrie-au-coeur-de-la-revolution-conservatrice-20220401 |access-date=April 1, 2022 |website=LEFIGARO |language=fr}}

File:Peter Boghossian TAM 2013 (9326703388) (cropped).jpg in 2013]]

Boghossian has called all faith-based beliefs "delusions".{{cite web|last=Holgate|first=Tess|title=How do you know? Atheist vs believer debates strike again|url=http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/how-do-you-know|publisher=Bible Society Australia|date=June 20, 2015|access-date=May 22, 2016|archive-date=June 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625010408/http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/how-do-you-know|url-status=live}} He has been described by The Daily Beast as aligned with the New Atheist movement. He advocates using the Socratic method to dissuade religious believers, though he recommends focusing on criticism of faith as a way of knowing (he calls it an "unreliable epistemology"), rather than the outward trappings of religious communities.

In a 2015 interview with Dave Rubin, Boghossian described himself as a classical liberal who has never voted for a Republican candidate, but is "not a fan" of the Democrats. He stated that any of the Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential election "would be an unmitigated disaster".{{Citation|last=Rubin|first=Dave|title=Peter Boghossian and Dave Rubin: Critical Thinking, Atheism, and Faith [Full Interview]|date=December 18, 2015|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnDZ4ERVSGo|website=The Rubin Report|access-date=June 3, 2016|archive-date=November 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119155632/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnDZ4ERVSGo|url-status=live}} He donated to and endorsed Andrew Yang for the 2020 United States presidential election.{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/1176720727275257856|title=I also donated to his campaign. Our best hope. #YangGang Join Andrew Yang and his campaign of ideas.|author=Peter Boghossian|date=September 25, 2019|publisher=Twitter|access-date=September 30, 2019|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308232853/https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/1176720727275257856|url-status=live}} He has stated that the US Republican Party is "the most powerful, anti-science political movement in the world". He wrote that it was "not alarmist" to state that they "could destroy the world" since many "refuse to even acknowledge that climate change is happening", and stated that their "denialist attitude is due partly to the religious convictions".{{Cite web |last=Boghossian |first=Peter |date=August 6, 2016 |title=It's Not Alarmist: Trump and the Republican Party Could Destroy the World |url=https://truthout.org/articles/it-s-not-alarmist-trump-and-the-republican-party-could-destroy-the-world/ |access-date=January 13, 2023 |website=Truthout |language=en-US}}

According to Boghossian, "the regressive left have taken over academia". He has often stated that cultural relativism and egalitarianism are contradictory values.{{cite web|title=One cannot be both a cultural relativist & an egalitarian. You can't simultaneously claim all cultures are relative & equal. #RegressiveLeft|url=https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/668082908733685760|publisher=Peter Boghossian on Twitter|date=November 21, 2015|access-date=May 22, 2016|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308013338/https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/668082908733685760|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=One cannot simultaneously maintain relativism & egalitarianism. Yet these contradictory values are held by many contemporary leftists.|url=https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/338163860227887104|publisher=Peter Boghossian on Twitter|date=May 25, 2013|access-date=May 22, 2016|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308125056/https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/338163860227887104|url-status=live}}

{{main|Grievance studies affair}}

{{See also|List of scholarly publishing stings#Interdisciplinary and cultural studies}}

In the grievance studies affair, also referred to as the "Sokal Squared" scandal, Boghossian, James A. Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose submitted a series of hoax academic papers for peer-review to journals in academic fields which they termed "grievance studies"—race, gender, feminist and sexuality studies which they believed were characterized by low scientific standards. They prepared 20 papers, of which 7 were accepted by the time the Wall Street Journal called their bluff.{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/10/06/another-set-of-fake-papers-takes-aim-at-social-sciences-nether-regions|title=Another set of fake papers takes aim at social science's nether regions|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=October 8, 2018|archive-date=October 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009172030/https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/10/06/another-set-of-fake-papers-takes-aim-at-social-sciences-nether-regions|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title= Fake News Comes to Academia |first= Jillian Kay|last= Melchior |work=Wall Street Journal |date= October 5, 2018 |url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/fake-news-comes-to-academia-1538520950 |access-date= 6 December 2023}}[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct4p7m Peter Boghossian: Has academia been corrupted by 'woke' ideology?]. Interview by Stephen Sackur. HARDtalk, BBC World Service, 6 December 2023.

In 2017, Boghossian and Lindsay published a hoax paper titled "The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct".{{cite news |last1=Schuessler |first1=Jennifer |title=Hoaxers Slip Breastaurants and Dog-Park Sex Into Journals |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/arts/academic-journals-hoax.html |accessdate=January 23, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=October 4, 2018 |archive-date=October 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005030941/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/arts/academic-journals-hoax.html |url-status=live }} The paper, which the authors said was intentionally absurd and written in a way that imitated the style of "poststructuralist discursive gender theory", argued that the penis should be seen "not as an anatomical organ but as a social construct isomorphic to performative toxic masculinity".{{cite news |last1=Jaschik |first1=Scott |title=Hoax With Multiple Targets |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/22/faux-scholarly-article-sets-criticism-gender-studies-and-open-access-publishing |accessdate=January 23, 2019 |work=Inside Higher Ed |date=May 22, 2017 |archive-date=February 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190211180642/https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/22/faux-scholarly-article-sets-criticism-gender-studies-and-open-access-publishing |url-status=live }} Boghossian and Lindsay initially submitted the paper to Norma, where it was rejected.{{cite web |last1=Tillberg |first1=Anneli |title=Attack on gender studies despite rejection of hoax article |url=https://www.genus.se/en/newspost/attack-on-gender-studies-despite-rejection-of-hoax-article |website=genus.se |accessdate=April 17, 2019 |date=June 12, 2017 |archive-date=May 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512171052/https://www.genus.se/en/newspost/attack-on-gender-studies-despite-rejection-of-hoax-article/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Statement regarding hoax article |url=https://normajournal.wordpress.com/2017/05/26/statement-regarding-hoax-article/ |website=normajournal.wordpress.com |publisher=Norma: International Journal for Masculinity Studies |accessdate=April 17, 2019 |date=May 26, 2017 |archive-date=April 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413185923/https://normajournal.wordpress.com/2017/05/26/statement-regarding-hoax-article/ |url-status=live }} They later submitted the paper to Cogent Social Sciences, a Taylor & Francis open access journal which has been criticized as a pay-to-publish operation. The authors later revealed the hoax in Skeptic magazine. Boghossian and Lindsay stated that they intended to demonstrate that "gender studies is crippled academically by an overriding almost-religious belief that maleness is the root of all evil", and also to highlight problems with the review processes of open-access journals.

A number of critics questioned whether Boghossian and Lindsay's paper demonstrated a problem in the field of gender studies. Alan Sokal, a mathematics professor who was responsible for a similar hoax in 1996, noted that Cogent Social Sciences was a low-tiered open access journal that did not specialize in gender studies, and said that it seemed unlikely the paper would have been accepted at a mainstream gender studies journal.{{cite news |last1=Sokal |first1=Alan |title=What the 'Conceptual Penis' Hoax Does and Does Not Prove |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-the-Conceptual/240344 |accessdate=January 27, 2019 |work=The Chronicle of Higher Education |date=June 14, 2017 |archive-date=January 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128082744/https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-the-Conceptual/240344 |url-status=live }} While the journal did conduct a postmortem, Boghossian and Lindsay concluded the "impact [of the hoax] was very limited, and much criticism of it was legitimate".{{cite magazine |last1=Pluckrose |first1=Helen |last2=Lindsay |first2=James A. |last3=Boghossian |first3=Peter |author-link3=Peter Boghossian |date=October 2, 2018 |title=Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship |url=https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010131220/https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/ |archive-date=October 10, 2018 |url-status=live|magazine=Aero }}

Beginning in August 2017, Boghossian, Lindsay, and Pluckrose began a much larger attempt in which they wrote 20 hoax papers, submitting them to peer-reviewed journals under a variety of pseudonyms as well as the name of Richard Baldwin, a professor emeritus at Florida's Gulf Coast State College and friend of Boghossian. The project was halted early after one of the papers in the feminist geography journal Gender, Place & Culture was criticized on social media, and then its authenticity questioned on Campus Reform.{{Cite news| last=Airaksinen|first=Toni|url=https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11158|title=Academic journal duped by author of 'dog rape culture' article|date=July 25, 2018|work=Campus Reform|access-date=October 8, 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=October 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181007184609/https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11158|url-status=live}}

After this, the trio revealed the full extent of their work in a YouTube video created and released by documentary filmmaker Mike Nayna, alongside an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVk9a5Jcd1k|title=The Grievance Studies Affair revealed|date=October 2, 2018 |via=www.youtube.com|access-date=October 9, 2018|archive-date=October 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003024701/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVk9a5Jcd1k|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/fake-news-comes-to-academia-1538520950|title=Opinion {{!}} Fake News Comes to Academia|last=Melchior|first=Jillian Kay|date=October 5, 2018|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=October 8, 2018|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660|archive-date=October 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003015636/https://www.wsj.com/articles/fake-news-comes-to-academia-1538520950|url-status=live}} By the time of the revelation seven of their twenty papers had been accepted, seven were still under review, and six had been rejected. One paper, which was accepted by feminist social work journal Affilia, transposed up-to-date jargon into passages lifted from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/arts/academic-journals-hoax.html|title=Hoaxers Slip Breastaurants and Dog-Park Sex Into Journals|date=October 4, 2018|work=New York Times|author=Schuessler, Jennifer|access-date=October 8, 2018|language=en|quote=...a third paper, published in a journal of feminist social work and titled "Our Struggle Is My Struggle," simply scattered some up-to-date jargon into passages lifted from Hitler's "Mein Kampf. ... "They set out to write 20 papers that started with "politically fashionable conclusions," which they worked backward to support by aping the relevant fields' methods and arguments, and sometimes inventing data.|archive-date=October 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005030941/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/arts/academic-journals-hoax.html|url-status=live}}

Tom Whipple of The Times wrote that academic reviewers had praised the studies prior to the revelation of the hoax as "a rich and exciting contribution to the study of ... the intersection between masculinity and anality", "excellent and very timely", and "important dialogue for social workers and feminist scholars".{{cite news |last1=Whipple |first1=Tom |title=Journals publish hoaxers' absurd gender studies |url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/property-home/article/journals-publish-hoaxers-absurd-gender-studies-q7f60l7v6 |access-date=January 27, 2019 |work=The Times |date=October 4, 2018 |page=19 |via=EBSCOhost Newspaper Source Plus |url-access=subscription |archive-date=January 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110140845/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/journals-publish-hoaxers-absurd-gender-studies-q7f60l7v6 |url-status=live }}

The project drew both praise and criticism, with author Yascha Mounk dubbing it 'Sokal squared' in reference to the Sokal Affair hoax perpetrated by Alan Sokal and saying "The result is hilarious and delightful. It also showcases a serious problem with big parts of academia." Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker said the project posed the question "is there any idea so outlandish that it won't be published in a Critical/PoMo/Identity/'Theory' journal?"{{Cite news|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Sokal-Squared-Is-Huge/244714|title='Sokal Squared': Is Huge Publishing Hoax 'Hilarious and Delightful' or an Ugly Example of Dishonesty and Bad Faith?|date=October 3, 2018|work=The Chronicle of Higher Education|access-date=October 8, 2018|archive-date=November 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120005040/https://www.chronicle.com/article/Sokal-Squared-Is-Huge/244714|url-status=live}} Daniel Engber of online magazine Slate criticised the project, saying "one could have run this sting on almost any empirical discipline and returned the same result".{{Cite news|url=https://slate.com/technology/2018/10/grievance-studies-hoax-not-academic-scandal.html|title=The "Grievance Studies" Hoax Does Not Reveal the Academic Scandal That It Claims|last=Engber|first=Daniel|work=Slate Magazine|access-date=October 8, 2018|language=en|archive-date=October 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181007234850/https://slate.com/technology/2018/10/grievance-studies-hoax-not-academic-scandal.html|url-status=live}} In an open but anonymous letter, eleven of Boghossian's colleagues at Portland State University wrote that the hoaxes "violat[ed] acceptable norms of research," and were "fraudulent, time-wasting, anti-intellectual activities".{{cite web |last1=McWilliams |first1=James |title=A Philosopher's Hoax Embarrassed Several Academic Journals. Was It Satire or Fraud? |url=https://psmag.com/education/a-philosophers-hoax-embarrassed-several-academic-journals-was-it-satire-or-fraud |website=Pacific Standard |accessdate=April 16, 2019 |date=January 25, 2019 |archive-date=June 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628115909/https://psmag.com/education/a-philosophers-hoax-embarrassed-several-academic-journals-was-it-satire-or-fraud |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title='Conceptual Penises' and other trolling: On the philosophy of science and making sense of 'Hoax Studies' |url=https://psuvanguard.com/conceptual-penises-and-other-trolling/ |website=Portland State Vanguard |accessdate=April 16, 2019 |date=November 9, 2018 |archive-date=May 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509162935/https://psuvanguard.com/conceptual-penises-and-other-trolling/ |url-status=live }} Joel P. Christensen and Matthew A. Sears said it was "the academic equivalent of the fraudulent hit pieces on Planned Parenthood" produced in 2015. Carl Bergstrom claimed "the hoaxers appear woefully naïve about how the [peer review] system actually works".{{Cite news|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-the-Grievance/244753|title=What the 'Grievance Studies' Hoax Means|date=October 9, 2018|work=The Chronicle of Higher Education|access-date=October 30, 2018|archive-date=October 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009230209/https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-the-Grievance/244753|url-status=live}}

A 2021 study assessing the grievance studies affair concluded, (1) journals with higher impact factors were more likely to reject papers submitted as part of the project; (2) the chances were better, if the manuscript was allegedly based on empirical data; (3) peer reviews can be an important asset in the process of revising a manuscript; and (4) when the project authors, with academic education from neighboring disciplines, closely followed the reviewers' advice, they were able to learn relatively quickly what is needed for writing an acceptable article. The boundary between a seriously written paper and a "hoax" gradually became blurred. Finally (5), the way the project ended showed that in the long run, the scientific community will uncover fraudulent practices."{{Cite journal|last=Lagerspetz|first=Mikko|date=March 1, 2021|title="The Grievance Studies Affair" Project: Reconstructing and Assessing the Experimental Design|journal=Science, Technology, & Human Values|language=en|volume=46|issue=2|pages=402–424|doi=10.1177/0162243920923087|s2cid=218914988|issn=0162-2439|doi-access=free}}

In 2018, Boghossian's employer, Portland State University, initiated a research misconduct inquiry relating to the grievance studies affair. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the university's institutional review board (IRB) concluded in December that Boghossian violated the ethical guidelines by conducting research on human subjects without approval. Consequently, he was banned from doing research until he had "completed training and could demonstrate that he understood how to protect the rights of human subjects". The University also said it was "considering a further charge that he had falsified data".{{cite news |last1=Mangan |first1=Katherine |title=Proceedings Start Against 'Sokal Squared' Hoax Professor |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Proceedings-Start-Against/245431 |accessdate=January 11, 2019 |work=The Chronicle of Higher Education |date=January 7, 2019 |archive-date=January 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108100812/https://www.chronicle.com/article/Proceedings-Start-Against/245431 |url-status=live }}

After news of the research conduct investigation broke, a number of prominent academics wrote letters defending Boghossian, including evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, mathematician and physicist Alan Sokal, philosopher Daniel Dennett, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and psychologist Jordan Peterson.{{cite news |last1=McWilliams |first1=James |title=A Philosopher's Hoax Embarrassed Several Academic Journals. Was It Satire or Fraud? |url=https://psmag.com/education/a-philosophers-hoax-embarrassed-several-academic-journals-was-it-satire-or-fraud |accessdate=September 10, 2019 |date=January 25, 2019 |work=Pacific Standard |archive-date=June 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628115909/https://psmag.com/education/a-philosophers-hoax-embarrassed-several-academic-journals-was-it-satire-or-fraud |url-status=live }} Pinker wrote that Portland State University's investigation struck him and his colleagues "as an attempt to weaponize an important [principle] of academic ethics in order to punish a scholar for expressing an unpopular opinion".{{cite news |last1=Soave |first1=Robby |authorlink=Robby Soave|title=Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, Jordan Peterson, Others Urge Portland State Not to Punish Peter Boghossian for 'Grievance Studies' Hoax |url=https://reason.com/2019/01/08/peter-boghossian-psu-misconduct-hoax-stu/ |accessdate=August 14, 2019 |work=Reason.com |date=January 8, 2019 |archive-date=November 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109063332/https://reason.com/2019/01/08/peter-boghossian-psu-misconduct-hoax-stu/ |url-status=live }} Dawkins suggested that the investigation could be politically motivated: "If the members of your committee of inquiry object to the very idea of satire as a form of creative expression, they should come out honestly and say so. But to pretend that this is a matter of publishing false data is so obviously ridiculous that one cannot help suspecting an ulterior motive." Peterson said that those pursuing allegations against Boghossian, and not Boghossian himself, were guilty of academic misconduct.

On the other hand, IRB experts interviewed by Jesse Singal for New York magazine agreed that Boghossian should have sought IRB approval for the study.{{cite news |last1=Singal |first1=Jesse | authorlink=Jesse Singal |title=Is a Portland Professor Being Railroaded by His University for Criticizing Social-Justice Research? |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/is-peter-boghossian-getting-railroaded-for-his-hoax.html |accessdate=January 11, 2019 |agency=New York Magazine |date=January 11, 2019 |archive-date=January 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111184936/http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/is-peter-boghossian-getting-railroaded-for-his-hoax.html |url-status=live }}

Street epistemology (often abbreviated to SE) is a term coined by Boghossian in his book A Manual for Creating Atheists.{{cite book|last = Boghossian|first = Peter|author-link = Peter Boghossian|title = A Manual for Creating Atheists|publisher = Pitchstone Publishing|year = 2013|isbn = 978-1939578099}} This is a set of non-confrontational conversational techniques for discussing a strongly-held belief, designed to promote thoughtful reflection and open-mindedness in a participant regarding the belief. Boghossian outlined the method and its application in helping religious believers to reflect on the reliability of faith as an epistemology. However, it has also been found effective in many other contexts, and Boghossian later co-authored with James Lindsay How to Have Impossible Conversations, which describes the application of street epistemology to an examination of a wider range of beliefs including nonreligious ones.

• {{cite thesis|last1=Boghossian|first1=Peter G. |title=Socratic pedagogy, critical thinking, moral reasoning and inmate education: an exploratory study |type=Ed.D. thesis |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57569353|year=2004 |location=Portland State University|oclc=57569353|accessdate=June 5, 2014|display-authors=0}}

• {{cite book |last1=Boghossian |first1=Peter |title=A Manual for Creating Atheists |year= 2013 |publisher=Pitchstone Publishing |isbn=978-1939578099 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Boghossian |first1=Peter |last2=Lindsay |first2=James |title=How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide |year= 2019 |publisher=Da Capo Lifelong Books |isbn=978-0738285320 }}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Official website|http://peterboghossian.com/}}
• {{Cite web |last=Boghossian |first=Peter |title=Beyond Woke with Peter Boghossian |url=https://boghossian.substack.com/ |access-date=May 5, 2022 |website=boghossian.substack.com}}
• [https://www.pdx.edu/philosophy/peter-boghossian Portland State University profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512171109/https://www.pdx.edu/philosophy/peter-boghossian |date= May 12, 2019 }}
• [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Street_Epistemology Street Epistemology on WikiUniversity]

{{New Atheism}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boghossian, Peter}}

Category:1966 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century atheists

Category:21st-century American philosophers

Category:Hoaxes in science

Category:21st-century atheists

Category:Atheist philosophers

Category:American people of Armenian descent

Category:American writers on atheism

Category:American atheism activists

Category:American logicians

Category:American critics of postmodernism

Category:Fordham University alumni

Category:Marquette University alumni

Category:New Atheism

Category:People from Boston

Category:Philosophers from Oregon

Category:Portland State University alumni

Category:Portland State University faculty

Category:Hoaxers