It would be a serious abuse of
language to refer to me as a “fearless” researcher or scholar – I
can see no meaningful threat to my personal safety or my career
from pursuing my scholarly and research agenda.
Of course, along with everyone else in
this gun-crazed society I face the daily risk of being a victim in
an "active shooter" incident, but the actual probability of such
an occurrence is considerably less than the risk that I will be
killed in a traffic accident on the way home from work or choke to
death on a piece of broccoli.
For me, along with most scholars and researchers in a university
such as Portland State University, there is nothing to fear from
disciplined inquiry, hence no meaning to the word "fearless."
There are many situations in which scholarly and scientific
work, as well as journalism and humanitarian work, is truly
dangerous and requires heroic courage on a daily basis.
Volcanology and virology come immediately to mind, along with
research on extremely controversial topics like sexual identity or
gun control, any scholarly, scientific, or humanitarian work
in politically unstable parts of the world, and research in
organizations (including some branches of U.S. government) in which
results of research and scholarship are routinely censored and
"whistle-blowing" routinely punished.
To refer to an ordinary scholar or scientist as "fearless"
does great disservice to people who face genuine danger in
conducting their routine work: It is these heroic people who
truly deserve to be called "fearless." Unless my future
work takes me to some truly dangerous part of the world, please do not
refer to me as fearless!