BY AARON BARLOW Christine Emba, editor of In Theory, wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post on July 28, 2017 calling the current mania for ‘outcomes’ a “familiar trap.” She was focusing on politics, particularly on the failure of health care ‘repeal and replace’ but her thoughts apply to education as well. They apply,…
BY RUSSELL RICKFORD This article was originally published by Black Perspectives, and is reposted here with permission. Black Perspectives is a project of the African-American Intellectual History Society. Russell Rickford is an associate professor of history at Cornell University. He is the author of We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black Power, and the…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the year since the attempted coup in Turkey, a “staggering” number of academics have faced criminal investigations, detentions, prosecutions, mass dismissal, expulsion and restrictions on travel, according to an open letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, signed by Robert Quinn, executive director of Scholars at Risk (SAR), the New…
BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier today Martin Kich posted a piece on legislation being considered in Congress that, according to an account by Glen Greenwald, “would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel.” While I think this legislation is unnecessary, ill-advised and frustratingly vague, I am skeptical that it is, as Marty argues,…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Writing for the Intercept, Glen Greenwald reports: The criminalization of political speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West. In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel. The U.K. has enacted a series of measures designed to outlaw such activism. In the…
BY HANK REICHMAN “If there’s an organized outrage machine, we need an organized response.” Those words from Tressie McMillan Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, author of the excellent Lower Ed, prolific blogger, and frequent (and often witty) presence on Twitter, headline a story in this morning’s Chronicle of Higher Education on…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a victory for academic freedom and faculty rights, a California State University, Fullerton part-time anthropology lecturer facing dismissal after a fracas at a campus demonstration in February has been reinstated by order of an arbitrator. The university’s College Republicans had accused Eric Canin of striking one of them at the demonstration.…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On July 8 I was interviewed on “Resistance Round Table,” a weekly radio broadcast on WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut, by AAUP member Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. We discussed current issues in academic freedom and free expression on campus. To listen to the half-hour interview go to this link: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/190984 A…
BY HANS-JOERG TIEDE In a victory for academic freedom, the administration of Trinity College in Connecticut acknowledged today that Professor Johnny Williams’s social media posts “were protected by academic freedom and did not violate Trinity College policies.” The administration’s statement observed that “Our understanding of academic freedom in America today is rooted largely in a…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Update, July 14: Trinity Dean of Faculty Releases Report after Review of Recent Social Media Activity July 14, 2017 To the Trinity College Community, Freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression in pursuit of the truth are essential, not only to the health of the academy but also to…