Academiology

Study of the spread and control of the mental illnesses inherent in the halls of the academy.

Etymology: Academia + Epidemiology.

Graduate student 1: "Why are you so consumed with keeping up on all the rumors and gossip in the department?"

Graduate student 2: "I'm not into gossip. I'm studying academiology."

Academiology by Matthew Alan Lord July 20, 2005

Academology

The study of the academy, science, the scientific community, and scientific/academic consensus—as social constructions that reproduce the same structures as other systems of social control, such as politics, organized religion, and bureaucracies. Academology examines how academic hierarchies, peer review, funding mechanisms, and prestige economies shape what counts as knowledge. It asks: how do academics police boundaries, enforce orthodoxy, and exclude dissent? How does the academy reproduce class, race, and gender inequalities? Academology reveals that 'objective' science is produced by very human institutions with their own rituals, power struggles, and gatekeepers.

Example: “Academology research showed that the Nobel Prize functions like a secular sainthood—anointing a few while obscuring the collaborative, institutional labor that made the discovery possible.”

Academology by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 2, 2026

Academology

The study of the academy, science, scientific consensus, and the scientific community using Kremlinological methods—inferring the hidden politics of citation, funding, peer review, and career advancement. Academologists analyze which research gets funded, which papers are cited, which theories are labeled “fringe,” and which scientists are promoted. Like Sovietologists tracking the rise and fall of party officials, academologists track the rise and fall of research programs, noting that scientific revolutions often require the retirement (or death) of old gatekeepers. The field demystifies the image of science as pure reason, revealing it as a human institution with its own power struggles, orthodoxies, and excommunications.

Example: "Academology research demonstrated that a promising theory was suppressed for a decade because its proponents lacked access to elite journal editorial boards—not because the evidence was weak, but because the social structure of the field excluded them."

Academology by Abzugal April 2, 2026