Anthony McIntyre ⚑ Academia can often be a creature of conformity. 

John Lowman
The stultifying environment in which it exists can lend itself to a culture of timidity and deference. Academics have spent years studying to enhance the expertise upon which careers can be built. A large portion of their lives has been banked in the project. Understandably, they wish to safeguard that investment. Sometimes a conflict arises which can lead to the needs of the career blunting the cutting edge of the expertise. The type of academic willing to unsee what is clearly visible might be what Upton Sinclair had in mind when he quipped:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

The academic John Lowman was not such a man. He did not fall into the Kissinger characterisation of academic politics being so vicious because the stakes are so small. When the stakes were big for researchers, research participants, research confidentiality and the very essence and purpose of research, John Lowman had no hesitation in picking a side to which he gravitated and then anchored himself. And no matter how vicious the institution became he stayed in the trenches fighting doggedly and determinedly. 

He made his name in the world of research for his work on prostitutes in Vancouver, being one of the first to alert the public to the presence of a serial killer targeting sex workers on the city's streets. He later rallied behind Russell Ogden, a student researching assisted end of life practices, while the Simon Frazer University decided to flee the scene of the crime and abandon the researcher. 

When Boston College's Belfast project blew up in the faces of the university and the gamut of those involved in the exercise, the College decided that it didn't matter if everyone fled, just as long as it fled faster, leaving the Devil to claim the hindmost. Myself and Ed Moloney, the project director, were in a dilemma. We were unable to hold the College to its longstanding commitment to protect the confidentiality of the research in all circumstances. The librarian revealed that a common attitude amongst the university bureaucracy was sure, they are all terrorists, why should we protect them? And protect them it didn't, opting in the face of each subpoena to roll over using the verdict of the courts as camouflage to mask its retreat while proclaiming we did our best. Which they didn't. The people in academia who did their best in the Boston College legal war were authentic investigators who placed a premium on the value of confidential research - researchers like John Lowman and Ted Palys, both criminologists at Simon Fraser University. 

When the British police subpoenas came through seeking to plunder the archive for confidential data, myself and Ed Ed Moloney had no decision to make. It was made for us. We would fight. My wife, who took charge of organising that fightback against the PSNI assault and the Boston College perfidy, had cast a wide net for assistance, seeking out any port in a storm. In addition to the remarkable Chris Bray who destroyed the College attack dog, Jack Dunn, at every turn, she discovered and reached out to Palys and Lowman, as they were often referred to in the world of academia. They responded immediately, advised, assisted, lobbied and would ultimately go on to write a book which covered the matter, Protecting Research Confidentiality: What happens when law and ethics collide.

Both researchers were an invaluable source of solace and solidarity when the legal battle was at its height. Their insights grounded in erudition and experience became a lighthouse to a project all at sea desperately seeking to survive the efforts of the PSNI to capsize it, while Captain Boston had jumped ship. 

We were immensely grateful to have both men in our camp. On the death of one of those formidable advocates for research confidentiality a tribute was made: 

On Thursday, June 23, 2022, the underdogs and oppressed of the world lost a great friend, Professor Emeritus John Lowman, after a several year battle with cancer.

John Lowman never gave ground. He stood it. In what evolved into a legal, academic and political war waged over research confidentiality he was a true warrior, prepared to return from the battle with his shield - or on it.   

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

John Lowman

Anthony McIntyre ⚑ Academia can often be a creature of conformity. 

John Lowman
The stultifying environment in which it exists can lend itself to a culture of timidity and deference. Academics have spent years studying to enhance the expertise upon which careers can be built. A large portion of their lives has been banked in the project. Understandably, they wish to safeguard that investment. Sometimes a conflict arises which can lead to the needs of the career blunting the cutting edge of the expertise. The type of academic willing to unsee what is clearly visible might be what Upton Sinclair had in mind when he quipped:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

The academic John Lowman was not such a man. He did not fall into the Kissinger characterisation of academic politics being so vicious because the stakes are so small. When the stakes were big for researchers, research participants, research confidentiality and the very essence and purpose of research, John Lowman had no hesitation in picking a side to which he gravitated and then anchored himself. And no matter how vicious the institution became he stayed in the trenches fighting doggedly and determinedly. 

He made his name in the world of research for his work on prostitutes in Vancouver, being one of the first to alert the public to the presence of a serial killer targeting sex workers on the city's streets. He later rallied behind Russell Ogden, a student researching assisted end of life practices, while the Simon Frazer University decided to flee the scene of the crime and abandon the researcher. 

When Boston College's Belfast project blew up in the faces of the university and the gamut of those involved in the exercise, the College decided that it didn't matter if everyone fled, just as long as it fled faster, leaving the Devil to claim the hindmost. Myself and Ed Moloney, the project director, were in a dilemma. We were unable to hold the College to its longstanding commitment to protect the confidentiality of the research in all circumstances. The librarian revealed that a common attitude amongst the university bureaucracy was sure, they are all terrorists, why should we protect them? And protect them it didn't, opting in the face of each subpoena to roll over using the verdict of the courts as camouflage to mask its retreat while proclaiming we did our best. Which they didn't. The people in academia who did their best in the Boston College legal war were authentic investigators who placed a premium on the value of confidential research - researchers like John Lowman and Ted Palys, both criminologists at Simon Fraser University. 

When the British police subpoenas came through seeking to plunder the archive for confidential data, myself and Ed Ed Moloney had no decision to make. It was made for us. We would fight. My wife, who took charge of organising that fightback against the PSNI assault and the Boston College perfidy, had cast a wide net for assistance, seeking out any port in a storm. In addition to the remarkable Chris Bray who destroyed the College attack dog, Jack Dunn, at every turn, she discovered and reached out to Palys and Lowman, as they were often referred to in the world of academia. They responded immediately, advised, assisted, lobbied and would ultimately go on to write a book which covered the matter, Protecting Research Confidentiality: What happens when law and ethics collide.

Both researchers were an invaluable source of solace and solidarity when the legal battle was at its height. Their insights grounded in erudition and experience became a lighthouse to a project all at sea desperately seeking to survive the efforts of the PSNI to capsize it, while Captain Boston had jumped ship. 

We were immensely grateful to have both men in our camp. On the death of one of those formidable advocates for research confidentiality a tribute was made: 

On Thursday, June 23, 2022, the underdogs and oppressed of the world lost a great friend, Professor Emeritus John Lowman, after a several year battle with cancer.

John Lowman never gave ground. He stood it. In what evolved into a legal, academic and political war waged over research confidentiality he was a true warrior, prepared to return from the battle with his shield - or on it.   

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

3 comments:

  1. He sounds a great man to have had around Anthony.

    Caoimhin O'Muraile

    ReplyDelete
  2. I imagine it was great to have an ally like John Lowman around, prepared to return from the battle with his shield - or on it, and especially so when ye were in that dogfight.

    ReplyDelete