Book Review: Dissonant Methods: Undoing Discipline in the Humanities Classroom

The book title is compelling and the contribution may be more timely than the editors could have anticipated as they describe pedagogy (and the nature of truth and existence itself) as dynamic. They suggest that one 21st-century challenge emerges from the “social erosion of the epistemological authority of science” (p. 60), stemming from vaccine refusals, global warming, and evolution deniers. They concluded this prior to any awareness of the impending COVID-19 pandemic that has now taken over our daily lives, including our academic spheres. The term “messy ecology” (p. 62) that Katja K. Pettinen adopts is thus particularly resonant relevant to this period of pandemic scholarship as both academics and students navigate the indeterminate and messy terrain of virtual teaching and learning.