Apathy, Aphasia, and Athambia: Teaching Jamestown and Parodying the History of International Law

Jones, Henry; O'Donoghue, Aoife

Abstract

In 2019, the Journal of the History of International Law published an article on the 1622 Jamestown Massacre. This article fell short of every standard of academic publishing, in particular three grounds on which the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) advise withdrawal of a publication – major errors, manipulation of data, and unethical research. We, along with many others, raised our concerns at the time, through both academic blogging and letters to the editors. In this chapter we want to reflect upon this incident and what it has taught us about our approach to teaching international law, particularly its history. To frame these reflections, we have found the speech given by Lucky in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot to be hugely useful. This trio of characteristics is important for our reading of Jamestown. While Beckett is on one level arguing that God is, uncaring, uninterested, and incapable of understanding, this also applies to his description of academia and language and communication in general. We believe that it is possible to overcome this, and it is actually a characterisation of academia at its worst.

Citation

Jones, H., & O'Donoghue, A. (2024). Apathy, Aphasia, and Athambia: Teaching Jamestown and Parodying the History of International Law. In J.-P. Gauci, & B. Sander (Eds.), Teaching International Law: Reflections on Pedagogical Practice in Context (17-30). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003429265-3

• Online Publication Date: Jun 26, 2024
• Publication Date: May 24, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 25, 2024
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 17-30
• Book Title: Teaching International Law: Reflections on Pedagogical Practice in Context
• Chapter Number: 2
• ISBN: 9781003429265
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003429265-3
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2613482