Another high profile tenure case

[cali]

From today's NYT:

Fracas Erupts Over Book on Mideast by a Barnard Professor Seeking Tenure

By KAREN W. ARENSON
Published: September 10, 2007

A tenure bid by an assistant professor of anthropology at Barnard College who has critically examined the use of archaeology in Israel has put Columbia University once again at the center of a struggle over scholarship on the Middle East.

The professor, Nadia Abu El-Haj, who is of Palestinian descent, has been at Barnard since 2002 and has won many awards and grants, including a Fulbright scholarship and fellowships at Harvard and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Barnard has already approved her for tenure, officials said, and forwarded its recommendation to Columbia University, its affiliate, which has the final say.

It is Dr. Abu El-Haj’s book, “Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society,” that has made her a lightning rod, setting off warring petitions opposing and supporting her candidacy, and producing charges of shoddy scholarship and countercharges of an ideological witch hunt.

Judith R. Shapiro, Barnard’s president, who is also an anthropologist, said in a statement that the tenure process was “one of the linchpins of academic freedom and liberal arts education,” and that despite the passions, it must be conducted “thoughtfully, comprehensively, systematically and confidentially.” She added, “This case will be no different, both in its rigor and its freedom from outside lobbying.”

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/education/10barnard.html?bl&ex=1189656000&en=edaadcde6c55ee62&ei=5087%0A

I have no expertise in the field of anthropology, but the article certainly makes clear that Professor El-Haj's credentials are impressive. Whether she's right or wrong about her thesis is something I won't venture a guess on, but I do think the idealogical attack on the tenure process, is disturbing.

Please, play nice. Try not to make any inflammatory, content free attacks. Maybe this post will remain in GD.

[LeftishBrit]

1. I agree that it's worrying when people campaign politically against someone getting tenure

The incidents in the United States which have gained publicity recently all seem to involve the Middle East in some way - but there are also many cases where people's jobs or grants have been threatened for other political reasons, or just because someone stepped on a senior person's toes.

Here is a link to a comment by my MP Evan Harris on a recent 'academic freedom of speech' case at Oxford University, where a professor of demography came under fire, and was pressed by a number of people to resign - he kept his job in the end - because he did some work for an anti-immigration organization. Although one of my strongest political issues is rights of immigrants and asylum-seekers, I have to agree with Evan Harris here: once you start restricting academic freedom of speech, you are on a slippery slope. There are exceptions to all rules, e.g. where an academic is using his position to spread serious racism, or to recruit for an organization like the Nazis; but these are very rare and extreme.


http://www.evanharris.org.uk/news/000101.html

[cali]

2. Thanks for the link

Yep. Turning academic tenure into a political free for all, is a lousy idea.

[flashl]

3. If free speech is a cornerstone of this society

What's prob? I have found no assertion, so far, in her book that hasn't been made in other books about the Mideast, Israel, and anthropology. How will a book threaten the existence of Israel?

Every day, we learn that long held beliefs are no longer valid. I am still miffed about the "pluto" thing myself.

[cali]

4. sure, but the larger point

is this kind of outside interference in the tenure process.

[flashl]

5. Which I see foremost as suppression of free speech. n/t