Abu El-Haj: Reportedly Granted Tenure
Controversial Barnard professor Nadia Abu El-Haj has received tenure, according to an e-mail sent by a departmental administrator to the anthropology listserv on Thursday.
“Here is the good news: Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj is now a tenured member of the Barnard and Columbia Anthropology Departments,” academic departmental administrator Xiomara Perez-Betances wrote in the e-mail. The e-mail provided no further information.
Apart from the e-mail, Spectator was unable to independently confirm that the tenure offer had been made. Abu El-Haj and Barnard College Communications did not return several calls placed last night, and Columbia spokesman Robert Hornsby declined to comment, saying the University does not discuss individual tenure processes.
Abu El-Haj has come under fire for her 2002 book, "Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society," in which she allegedly denies the existence of the ancient Jewish state of Israel. Though her bid for tenure drew criticism from a number of alumni and organizations like Campus Watch, a group that monitors Middle Eastern studies on college campuses, Abu El-Haj has also received strong support from colleagues within the department and beyond....
Read entire article at Columbia Spectator
“Here is the good news: Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj is now a tenured member of the Barnard and Columbia Anthropology Departments,” academic departmental administrator Xiomara Perez-Betances wrote in the e-mail. The e-mail provided no further information.
Apart from the e-mail, Spectator was unable to independently confirm that the tenure offer had been made. Abu El-Haj and Barnard College Communications did not return several calls placed last night, and Columbia spokesman Robert Hornsby declined to comment, saying the University does not discuss individual tenure processes.
Abu El-Haj has come under fire for her 2002 book, "Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society," in which she allegedly denies the existence of the ancient Jewish state of Israel. Though her bid for tenure drew criticism from a number of alumni and organizations like Campus Watch, a group that monitors Middle Eastern studies on college campuses, Abu El-Haj has also received strong support from colleagues within the department and beyond....
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Larry Cohler-Esses is editor-at-large for the Jewish Week of New York.: The New McCarthyism