Short abstract:

This paper explores the dynamics between a national university as a specific organizational form and its production of activist-scientists to examine how these peculiar epistemic subjects establish and marshal expertise in both political and scientific arenas.

Long abstract:

In direct contrast to universalistic and disinterested constructions of knowledge, the rise of patriotic science (Fonseca et al., 2022; Rambukwella, 2023) points to the increasing accommodation of epistemic subjects whose work is likely to be locally situated and socio-politically inflected. These activist-scientists are peculiar for not conforming to the "traditional scientific cultural norms of impartiality and neutrality," are often tied to "crisis situations," and challenge traditional conceptions of expertise (Isopp, 2014). How these actors accumulate and deploy scientific credibility, however, remains an open question. This paper explores the dynamics between a national university and its accompanying organizations in the production of these actors. The study focuses on the case of AGHAM (the Filipino or Tagalog word for science) which is a professional and student organization with members and alumni based largely at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The organization’s activities in response to specific crises are examined through public statements, produced studies, interviews, and other organizational artifacts. Through these, dynamics between a national university as a specific organizational form and the activist organization are examined in how the former animates, legitimizes, and empowers the latter. Doing so hopes to shed light on this particular model of contemporary knowledge production in how such actors deal with the particular problem of establishing and marshalling expertise in both political and scientific arenas.