BY HANK REICHMAN The California Supreme Court declined this week to stay an injunction that requires the University of California at Berkeley to freeze enrollment at Fall 2020 levels while a lawsuit against the university filed by a resident group proceeds. The suit, filed under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), charges that the university…
BY JESSICA WINEGAR Do you know that photo of the older woman protestor holding a sign that says “I Can’t Believe I Still Have to Protest this S**t?” Now that I just turned fifty and have spent three decades in the academy, I think of that image frequently when attending academic talks. Back in grad…
BY HANK REICHMAN Despite ongoing and lively debate among scholars of the region about the nature and histories of Russian and Ukrainian nationalism, the origins and causes of the current crisis, and the appropriate role for the US and its allies in the conflict, a remarkable unanimity has emerged among scholarly organizations in Russian and…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The letter below, which has so far attracted over 700 signatures, a veritable who’s-who of Jewish and Israel Studies, comes in response to the University of Washington placing its five-year-old Israel Studies Program on hold after a major donor, angry about a professor’s criticism of Israel, took her money back. Becky…
BY HANK REICHMAN The Delhi High Court today ordered Twitter to take down within 48 hours certain tweets by Rutgers University historian Audrey Truschke, days after she and other scholars were barred by the court from publishing a letter accusing an Indian popular historian of plagiarism. On Tuesday. a large group of scholars had issued…
BY DALE E. MILLER Several states have taken or are considering measures to prohibit the teaching of “divisive concepts.” In my state, Virginia, new governor Glenn Younkin immediately issued Executive Order Number One (E.O. 1), “Ending the Use of Inherently Divisive Concepts, Including Critical Race Theory, and Restoring Excellence in K–12 Public Education in the…
BY JENNIFER RUTH AND EDDIE R. COLE When the entire Black delegation of the Mississippi State Senate walked out to protest the vote on banning critical race theory on January 21, I thought about UCLA professor Eddie R. Cole’s 2020 book The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom. “The people…
BY JENNIFER RUTH AND ELLEN SCHRECKER We’re used to hearing that American higher education is in serious danger. Many of us have developed a kind of learned helplessness in response to the regularity with which we hear about the crises of the academy. But we are not powerless. Although the current educational gag orders targeting…
BY AINSLEY CARRY Founded in 1816, Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is one of the oldest Black churches in the South. Black leaders in South Carolina were nurtured in this church and advanced to national prominence. Mother Emanuel—as referred to by locals—is the heartbeat of the Black community in Charleston, SC. On June 17,…
POSTED BY SARAH MINK The winter issue of Academe explores how the pandemic has changed faculty organizing and engendered new kinds of solidarity. The articles offer snapshots of the recent work of AAUP chapters around the country, provide templates for expanding the faculty’s influence on campus, and draw out lessons that chapters can carry forward into…