Yet More Noted

by Cliopatria

Randy Dotinga,"Of Lice and Men," Wired, 5 June, reviews Nicholas Wade, Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors, a study of what human and animal genes can tell us about our ancient past.

E & P Staff,"Upcoming 'Vanity Fair' Article Raises New Issues About 'DaVinci Code' Author," Editor & Publisher, 6 June, says that additional serious allegations of plagiarism against Dan Brown will be aired in an issue of Vanity Fair that will appear this week.

Philip Marchand,"The In-Betweeners," Toronto Star, 4 June. The"Greatest Generation" dominated American public life for two generations. Joining it after World War II, the GG held on through GHWB's administration. Marchand argues that a slightly younger group, those between the GG and the"Boomers" have done the same thing in American popular culture. W-e j-u-s-t w-o-n't l-e-t g-o ... a-a-k, g-a-g, c-o-u-g-h, g-a-s-p ...

Roy Rosenzweig,"Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past," Journal of American History, June 2006, addresses issues we've often discussed at Cliopatria. That link, through History Cooperative, is subscriber only.

Cathy Young,"Israel the Unfair Target of Selective Outrage," Boston Globe, 5 June, covers the absurd vote by Britain's National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education to boycott Israeli scholars and the failure of the American Association of University Professors to condemn the boycott. See also: Young's The Y Files for an update.

Hugo Schwyzer argues that the termination of a tenured faculty member at Pasadena Community College violates both policy and human decency. Even I am more considerate of people who live with bi-polar disorder since learning that one of our highly respected colleagues at Cliopatria copes very productively with it.
See also: Rob Cappriccioso,"Mentally Untenured," Inside Higher Ed, 8 June.

Finally, congratulations to our colleague, Sharon Howard. In August, she will become manager of two online primary source projects at the University of Sheffield's Humanities Research Institute: Proceedings of the Central Criminal Court: 1834-1913, a continuation of the The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London: 1674 to 1834 and Plebian Lives and the Making of Modern London. If you're planning to commit a crime or live an ordinary life in early modern England or Wales, you'll want to consult Dr. Howard first. Not unrelated, Cliopatria's friend, Sherman Dorn, is behind bars, where he belongs. Only visiting, actually, Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, built in 1829 and now being restored. From personal experience, I can tell you it's an extraordinary building.

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Michael McIntyre - 6/8/2006

Ralph, you're being unreasonably obstinate. Do you think that Bowen is not speaking for AAUP when he says "we deplore this approach," or when he says "The AAUP shares and suports the principles of the ADL"? For that matter, what of Cary Nelson's condemnation of the NATFHE resolution in Inside Higher Ed on May 12? (http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/12/boycott)

On May 29, an organization that blinked out of existence on June 1 passed a bad resolution. Committee A met on June 2-3. Recommendations made at that meeting will be voted on by the AAUP membership at its national meeting this Saturday, June 10. If AAUP votes to condemn the NATFHE resolution on June 10, will that satisfy you? Alternately, if AAUP decides to ignore a meaningless resolution by a now-defunct organization, will the previous statement on the AUT boycott, as well as the statements of both the General Secretary and the President of AAUP on the NATFHE boycott, leave any doubt about the organization's position?

Ralph E. Luker - 6/8/2006

As someone used to say: 2-3 June have come and went. Given the months of public discussions prior to the blacklist vote and that we have this statement from Roger Bowen only after the ADL calls out the AAUP on it, and that Bowen makes no claim here to be speaking on behalf of the AAUP, it seems fair to believe that the organization has been very slow or unwilling, as an organization, to make a forthright public declaration of opposition to this specific boycott.

Michael McIntyre - 6/8/2006

Here's what Roger Bowen, the General Secretary, said in his letter to ADL.

"I agree with your assessment of the NATFHE resolution as a “blacklist” and one, I should add, that encourages individual scholars to set the terms of litmus tests for working with Israeli scholars; and, further, ascribes to individual Israeli faculty members particular positions of their institutions. We deplore this approach no less than the opposite: a university’s claim to constrain academic freedom on grounds that the faculty member’s speech or conduct implies institutional endorsement.

The AAUP’s Committee A will be meeting on 2-3 June and will at that time discuss an appropriate response, if needed, to NATFHE’s resolution. The AAUP shares and supports the principles of the ADL in this matter."

That's more than a statement of general opposition to all academic boycotts. It's a condemnation of the NATFHE boycott by AAUP's General Secretary.

Ralph E. Luker - 6/8/2006

Thanks, Michael, especially for the links. I was aware that the two British unions were about to merge, but this issue has been up for public debate for several months. The AAUP was well aware that the NATFHE was likely to vote in favor of a boycott and that its vote would be followed by the merger. The boycott may be mute in some official sense, but individuals will, as they already have, taken it as a justification for their discrimination against Israeli scholars. The AAUP still has not said a word, except to repeat this general opposition to all academic boycotts.

Michael McIntyre - 6/8/2006

Ralph, you should amend your post. I read Cathy Young's blog. She interviewed Jonathan Knight at AAUP, who points out that NATFHE is a now-defunct union, and that unless the new union formed by the merger of NATFHE/AUT takes a position, this issue is moot. Meanwhile, a commenter on her blog points out that Roger Bowen, in a letter to ADL, has reaffirmed AAUP's condemnation of academic boycotts, including this one. You can find a copy of the letter at http://www.adl.org/Israel/Letter_aaup.asp