Alan Sokal

Alan Sokal is a physicist and professor known for a famous academic prank in 1996, called the "Sokal Affair." He submitted a deliberately incoherent article filled with jargon to a cultural studies journal to see if they would publish it, which they did. His goal was to demonstrate that some parts of academic humanities and social sciences might accept superficial jargon without rigorous scrutiny. The incident sparked debates about intellectual standards, the role of peer review, and how different academic fields evaluate content. Sokal’s actions highlight ongoing discussions about the boundaries between scientific rigor and interpretive disciplines.