Academic freedom and Middle East Studies in the US
Inside Higher Ed has an update on the struggle between Campus Watch and Middle East academia.
0 thoughts on “Academic freedom and Middle East Studies in the US”
Interesting if somewhat rambling and poorly-written piece.
This part is snorting-coffee-through-the-nose material:
“in the case of El-Haj, much of the criticism concerns her book Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society.
Material published on Campus Watch states that the book’s aim is to undermine the historic connection between the Jewish people and Israel, that the critique of Israeli archaeology is poorly researched and written, and that the author’s anti-Israel bias undercuts her work. The material also questions whether El-Haj knows enough about Israel and has enough mastery of Hebrew to conduct any anthropological work about Israeli society.”
Well if they’re going to examine every scholar of the Middle East for high standards in language ability and rigorous fieldwork, I fear that they may have to lobby for the removal of a significant percentage of existing faculty, and anthropologists are probably on the strongest ground in language and fieldwork compared with other disciplines. Glass houses and all that. Martin Kramer himself has a pretty thin record of actual academic publishing, and hasn’t published anything of note in at least ten years – it’s all been political positioning.
Interesting if somewhat rambling and poorly-written piece.
This part is snorting-coffee-through-the-nose material:
“in the case of El-Haj, much of the criticism concerns her book Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society.
Material published on Campus Watch states that the book’s aim is to undermine the historic connection between the Jewish people and Israel, that the critique of Israeli archaeology is poorly researched and written, and that the author’s anti-Israel bias undercuts her work. The material also questions whether El-Haj knows enough about Israel and has enough mastery of Hebrew to conduct any anthropological work about Israeli society.”
Well if they’re going to examine every scholar of the Middle East for high standards in language ability and rigorous fieldwork, I fear that they may have to lobby for the removal of a significant percentage of existing faculty, and anthropologists are probably on the strongest ground in language and fieldwork compared with other disciplines. Glass houses and all that. Martin Kramer himself has a pretty thin record of actual academic publishing, and hasn’t published anything of note in at least ten years – it’s all been political positioning.