Facts, Falsehoods and the First Amendment

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Late last year I posted a piece about climate scientist and AAUP Committee A member Michael Mann’s important victory in his ongoing libel suit.  The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled in a 111-page opinion that Mann can sue two conservative writers over allegations that they defamed him.  The case centers on…

Support Imprisoned Turkish Scholars

BY HANK REICHMAN In November I posted to this blog the text of a letter from an imprisoned Turkish scholar, Dr. Sedat Laçiner,.  The following is the text of a blog post written by Dr. Laçiner, shortly before his imprisonment: Opponent or Terrorist? Dramatically Changing Nature of Turkish Democracy Sedat Laciner In advanced democracies, the…

The AWP and Disability Inclusion

BY STEPHEN KUUSISTO The writer Quintan Anna Wikswo has written an “Open Letter to the AWP Regarding Disability Rights” which you can read here: http://bumblemoth.com/open-letter-to-awp-regarding-disability-rights/ If you’re not an academic writer—a poet, novelist, short fiction writer, playwright, or non-fictionist who makes her living teaching you might not be aware of the AWP, more comprehensively known…

Dissent at Berkeley

BY MICHAEL MERANZE The following post by UCLA history professor Michael Meranze  is reposted by permission from the Remaking the University blog that he runs along with UC Santa Barbara professor Christopher Newfield.   I have offered my own view of the Milo controversy at Berkeley in “On Milo’s Right to Speak.” The turmoil surrounding Milo…

'The Great Shame of Our Profession'

BY AARON BARLOW Kevin Birmingham, who teaches at Harvard as an adjunct, gave a talk last October on accepting the Truman Capote Award. It is reprinted  in The Chronicle of Higher Education and I’d recommend that each of us who is tenured or on the tenure track read it. Birmingham writes: I sometimes wonder when the ripples widened…