Sunday Notes

by Cliopatria

Until 24 November, nominations are open for The Weblog Awards, 2006, where several of Cliopatria's friends have already been nominated. Go over, have a look, and if your favorite blogs haven't yet been nominated, you know what to do. Nominations for the Cliopatria Awards are open until 30 November.

At New 7 Wonders, you can vote on the New Seven Wonders of the World. The twenty-one finalists are: the Acropolis in Athens; Egypt's pyramids, Turkey's Haghia Sophia; the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral; Rome's Colosseum; Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle; France's Eiffel Tower; Stonehenge; New York's Statue of Liberty; Spain's Alhambra; China's Great Wall; India's Taj Mahal; Japan's Kiyomizu Temple; Australia's Sydney Opera House; Cambodia's Angkor; Timbuktu; Petra, Jordan; Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer; Peru's Machu Picchu; Easter Island; and Mexico's Chichen Itza. For more information, see this background story.

Timothy Tyson,"The Ghosts of 1898," Raleigh News & Observer, 17 November, is Tim's summary resulting from a recent official state inquiry into the Wilmington, North Carolina, race riot of 1898. The white Democrats' insurrection overthrew a legitimately elected local government of black and white Republicans and Populists. Tim's summary report also appears in the Charlotte Observer and the Wilmington Star-News.
The News & Observer, 19 November, includes family recollections of 1898's Wilmington insurrection by two white and two black descendents: Lewin Manley, Anne Russell, George Rountree III, and Faye Chaplin.
Thanks to Sally Greene at Greenspace for the tip.

Wadie Said, the son of Edward Said, is a candidate for a position on the faculty of law at Wayne State University. Stand With Us, Campus Watch and some other pro-Israeli forces have organized opposition to Said's appointment. Stand With Us is also promoting opposition to the tenure candidacy of Barnard anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj. It seems to me that organizing opposition to candidates for academic appointments or promotion within them is always problematic. If right-wing or pro-Israeli lobbyists continue to engage in this kind of activity, as they did in the case of Juan Cole, then they must not object when or if left-wing or pro-Palestinian lobbyists engage in retaliatory action. These decisions are too important to reduce them to skirmishes in the culture wars.

On a different matter, the tazer assault by UCLA campus police on the university's Iranian-American senior, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, in Powell Library seems outrageous. Here's a YouTube video of the incident. If I were in Los Angeles, I'd probably be with the students, in the streets protesting. Thanks to TPM's David Kurtz and Ezra Klein for the tip.

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Stephan Xavier Reich - 11/25/2006

Let me clarify

Stephan Xavier Reich - 11/25/2006

I meant that KC Johnson felt that his pro-Israel stance had caused some of colleagues to unite against him. He said so here on H-Net a long time ago.

Stephan Xavier Reich - 11/25/2006

Yup. If the pro-Palestinian extremists want to try to stop KC Johnson from getting tenure . . .oh wait, that happened!

Ralph E. Luker - 11/25/2006

You happen to be wrong, Mr. Reich. -- wrong unless, you think that KC Johnson would find a panel that represented _only_ pro-Israeli points of view should have the college's approval, while a panel that represented only pro-Palestinian points of view should not. I happen to have greater confidence in my colleague's even-handed judgment than you do; and, therefore, I do not believe that his being pro-Israeli was the issue. The issue was his insistence on even-handedness in representation in a panel that had the college's approval.

Ralph E. Luker - 11/20/2006

Thanks for the clarification. I apologize if I misunderstood you.

Jonathan Dresner - 11/20/2006

That's what I was saying about KC: that it wasn't an issue.

I don't really want to get into Rebunk career analysis: both you and I are talking about the potentials for culture war influence on what should be academic merit-based decisions.

Ralph E. Luker - 11/20/2006

With all due respect, I think you are off-point here, Jon. KC's case had _nothing_ to do with his attitude toward Israel. And, so far as the Rebunkers are concerned, Tootle moved with UNorthernColorado to Georgia State and Catsam from Minnesota State to the Texas system with no obvious difficulty. So far as Tom's concerned, I think that he never aspired to be in the classroom and is happy as a clam churning out stuff for the Pentagon.

Jonathan Dresner - 11/20/2006

More to the point, KC isn't so prominently pro-Israel or at all "rightist" in meaningful ways such that his hiring or tenure would trigger strong leftist or anti-Israeli activism. No, it's scholars with much stronger ideological profiles who will suffer (unless, as Campus Watch, et al., allege, there's no need for activism as these positions are default ones; I disagree with that, but I can see the argument being made): the former members of Rebunk come to mind.

Ralph E. Luker - 11/20/2006

Oh, and beyond that, the only organization of influence outside of KC's department in his case, was a letter signed by two dozen major historians in his favor and the public expressions supporting his candidacy by a number of us minor historians. What I'm objecting to is the organization of outside influence _in opposition to_ candidacies.

Ralph E. Luker - 11/20/2006

Mr. Reich, You clearly mis-recall the issues involved in KC's tenure case. He is pro-Israel (I think too uncritically so), but that was not an issue in the tenure case. The issue was a hiring decision in which KC bucked the department powers in favor of merit-based hiring. On that, I agreed with him and, on the basis of his strong scholarship and teaching ability, I strongly supported his case for tenure. You really do need to get your facts straight.

Sally Greene - 11/19/2006

I've updated my post to include links to today's News & Observer interviews with four descendants of people involved in the Wilmington events.

Jonathan Dresner - 11/19/2006

With friends like these....